Little Garden a secret ingredient to family five- a- day
Nutritionist shares magic ingredients for encouraging your kids to eat their veg.
Kids and veggies don’t always go together naturally, but kids and superheroes do. Make veggies the hero on the plate and you’ve got a match made in nutrition heaven.
Nutritionist Jessica Smaill delivers Food for Thought, Foodstuffs’ free school-based nutrition programme that educates children all over the country on how to make healthier food choices.
She’s heard every grumble possible from students not keen to see the green stuff on their plates. But Smaill says it doesn’t take much to turn that around and get kids on board with the benefits of eating a variety of vegetables every day.
She says, rather than being a last minute add on, the secret is to build them into the meal from the very beginning.
“Vegetables can be the star of the dish, something to celebrate and relish, and learning the wonders of veg through the Food for Thought programme really resonates with students.”
The popular and interactive programme has been running in schools for more than a decade. It’s just one of the ways Foodstuffs, the Kiwi co-operative which includes New World, PAK’nSAVE and Four Square, demonstrates
its commitment to nurturing healthy communities throughout New Zealand and making a difference for future generations.
To encourage healthy choices, the Food for Thought programme teaches children how vegetables grow, what they need to thrive, and the
superpowers that make them do great things for the bodies and minds of those who eat them.
“I find telling students about vitamins and how they help different parts of the body, and which nutrients are in which coloured vegetables, can help them want to try them,” says Smaill.
“It can be a bit of a revelation – explaining why carrots really will help them see in the dark can create a whole new mindset.”
Smaill says research shows a strong correlation between children who enjoy their vegetables and those who help grow them. If children are involved in the hands-on growing, picking and preparing of ingredients for a meal, they’re far more likely to see them as heroes not villains.
It’s a philosophy central to New World’s Little Garden, which Smaill says is a great way to spark an enthusiasm for vegetables. There are 24 different vegetable, herb and flower ‘ Fresh Friends’ to collect, each with their own character and personality like the swish Baron von Basil or gentle giant Colin the Cabbage. Each kit, free with every $40 spent at New World, has its own fibre pottle, soil tablet and seed mat, and there’s a collector sticker book too.
Foodstuffs’ Food for Thought Nutritionist, Jessica Smaill gives away top secrets for getting kids to eat their five-a-day.
“They’re easy to grow and fastsprouting,” says Smaill. “Kids like to challenge each other to see what’s growing the fastest, and it gets the conversation going with the family as well.”
She encourages families to create a rainbow on their plates and get their five-a-day by making veggies the hero of smoothies, stir fries, frittatas and pastas. New World and the Heart Foundation have partnered to develop some great recipes using the Little Garden seedlings so families will be able to create new and interesting meals.
Of course, not every child who finds eating vegetables challenging will magically change overnight, but Smaill says creativity and positive modelling by the adults in their lives will help them adapt to new flavours. The key is to keep it fun and positive while
making the most of the many ways vegetables can be prepared.
“The fun element can extend to the kitchen too, making them into dips, roasting them, or cooking them in as many different ways as possible.”
Smaill says now is the time to set up great habits for the future.
“Kids aren’t stuck in longstanding habits like adults. That’s really cool when it comes to nutrition, because if they make some healthy changes now, they’ll be set up for life.”
It’s Little Garden’s final week! Get your free seedling kit with every $40 you spend at New World and visit
for Little Garden recipe inspiration.