Talofa lava and welcome to another episode of tasty talk. I have officially been a part of belly for almost 2 years now and as we\u00a0near the beginning of\u00a0the Winter\u00a0season at\u00a0BayFM\u00a0i thought it an interesting time to\u00a0take a listen back to when i started and therefore realise how far i have come.<\/p>\n
When i first decided to\u00a0start on\u00a0belly, i had no experience in a magazine radio show … you know, talking to people and putting together interesting and informative radio. I had plenty of experience as a music DJ and still love that ‘other side’ of my radio personality, but\u00a0life\u00a0aint nothin’ without a challenge, so i approached Sister Tess and\u00a0somehow convinced her to take me on as a bellysister. I hear the words “You’re\u00a0in !!” Now all i have to do is make it happen.<\/p>\n
The first live interview i did took me to Ocean Shores Public School\u00a0where i was eager to\u00a0delve\u00a0deeper into the Nutrition Programme\u00a0that headmaster Chris Horitz has set up\u00a0as part of the school curriculum. I had read about it\u00a0in the local paper and decided that this was a\u00a0major part of my\u00a0passion surrounding Nutrition – to help educate children, the next generation, about the importance of good, healthy and nutritious foods in their lives and that of their families.<\/p>\n
Each week, a different class from the school\u00a0boards a bus early in the morning and heads down to the New Brighton Farmers Market where they have a set\u00a0budget to spend on creating an amazing lunch. The lists and ingredients are all worked out\u00a0in a classroom activity prior to the children attending the markets, so\u00a0by the time they have their purchasing jobs completed\u00a0and the goods in their hot little hands, all that’s left to do is sample the free delights that the generous stall holders provide for the ever hungry and eager children.<\/p>\n
I talk to all of them all\u00a0one by one and ask them various questions about their specific role in the preparation of the meal and their opinions on some of the interesting and unusual foods they may be tasting for the first time here today. Finger limes\u00a0are popular,\u00a0as\u00a0are the dried bananas they get to\u00a0chew\u00a0amongst the\u00a0fresh morning dew.<\/p>\n
Once all of the buying, tasting\u00a0and gathering is completed, the kids jump back on the bus and head back to school, a mere five minute journey away. A gentle\u00a0ambiance\u00a0is restored to\u00a0the marketplace once again and the birdsong replaces the chatter of excited children, happy to be in a\u00a0different\u00a0kind of classroom environment than one they are used to\u00a0on any other school morning.<\/p>\n
Once back at school, i interviewed Chris Horitz the headmaster and was impressed by his level of enthusiasm and dedication\u00a0for teaching these lucky children\u00a0how to prepare and\u00a0put together a nutritious meal.\u00a0\u00a0He’s thrilled\u00a0with the support he has received from the parents, marketeers and organizers of the programme\u00a0but even happier with the response from the children themselves, who are over the moon to be involved so hands on, in this lesson of love.<\/p>\n
I leave his office (it’s not been often that i’ve left a headmaster’s office without being in trouble) and eventually rejoin the children in class and think about the words of the headmaster.\u00a0He is a\u00a0positivly influential man and his passion for\u00a0teaching grows far out of the confinements of the classroom walls, and deep into the land\u00a0surrounding\u00a0his school and the children,\u00a0as they explore the humble beginnings of food and not just accept that it comes from the fridge at home or the supermarket shelf. He hopes that they\u00a0will go home and teach the rest of their family what they may be learning here for the first time and also\u00a0that they will be inspired to plant their own\u00a0little patch of food somewhere, at some point in their lives, whether it be now or sometime in the future.<\/p>\n
There is\u00a0also a garden up and running\u00a0on the school grounds,\u00a0to further the experience of eating locally and knowing where that food comes from and how it is grown. Future plans are to plant seedlings\u00a0from the market, and eventually sell them back from a stall at the very market they started from to raise money for other great school projects.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile lunch is being prepared back in the classroom as the\u00a0produce is being arranged\u00a0and\u00a0preparation begins.\u00a0The aroma of passion fruit is making my mouth water so much i’m afraid you’ll be able to hear me dribbling into the mic when i record the kids talking about this next stage of the game.<\/p>\n
Knives are\u00a0slicing, dicing and impressively chopping\u00a0as voices\u00a0echo excitedly\u00a0around the compact space. Tables that are usually reserved for ordered work and neat book keeping are covered in\u00a0breadcrumbs and sharp knives. All around i see vibrant colours; star fruits gleaming like they belong in the sky, apples crisp and juicy, plump pears, bananas ripe and tasty, salad leaves\u00a0fresh from the farmers garden glow in all their shades of green, tomatoes red as the rosy cheeks of the children cutting them, cheeses and yogurt, fresh and fragrant, mingle with the smell of fruits opening in front of me and baring their innermost gloriousness.<\/p>\n
The whole scene is one of pleasure and joy, enthusiasm and effort, hunger and mouthwatering patience and i myself feel that at least once, in each child’s life, they should have the right to experience something as wonderfully sharing and natural as the preparation and consumption of a meal bursting with as much wholesome and vibrant\u00a0pureness as the children themselves.<\/p>\n
Ocean Shores Public School has great initiatives in place\u00a0to encourage\u00a0sustainable living and learning and if i could choose a school that I’d want to go to then this\u00a0would be it …\u00a0hhhmmm, pity i have already completed my primary education. Good to see the next generation with so much opportunity to learn the things that\u00a0a lot of us\u00a0grew up\u00a0taking for granted but that are so important in these times that we are now living.<\/p>\n
Here’s to educating the children of the world and guiding them into the healthiest life possible. From school life to home life, for the rest of their lives, let’s hope that opportunity’s like this one at school plant the seeds of\u00a0wholesomeness that grow into love for themselves and the planet we live on.<\/p>\n
As for me, I’m happy to have been able to have shared this interview with you a second time and am planning to go back to OSPS and see how the structure of Nutritional learning is holding up. I also plan to have less uuuummmm’s than my first interview and a variety of questions for the children that enable them to open up and really share with us their thoughts and views on food and how it affects their lives.<\/p>\n
I’ll be back with more\u00a0conversations, straight from the mouths of babes.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
xx sister R<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Talofa lava and welcome to another episode of tasty talk. I have officially been a part of belly for almost 2 years now and as we\u00a0near the beginning of\u00a0the Winter\u00a0season at\u00a0BayFM\u00a0i thought it an interesting time to\u00a0take a listen back to when i started and therefore realise how far i have come. When i first […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2244","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-radio-show-posts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.belly.net.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2244","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.belly.net.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.belly.net.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.belly.net.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.belly.net.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2244"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/www.belly.net.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2244\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2247,"href":"http:\/\/www.belly.net.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2244\/revisions\/2247"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.belly.net.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2244"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.belly.net.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2244"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.belly.net.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2244"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}