Potatoes NZ Inc. Support Stand Children’s Services
Posted by BlogAdmin on January 18th, 2015
Stand’s vision: We stand together to bring hope to New Zealand’s most vulnerable children. We nurture the dreams and aspirations of our nation’s children, allowing them to find their turangawaewae, ‘their place to stand’.
Stand’s objective is to transform the lives of children and young people who are at significant risk of harm to their well being as a consequence of the environment in which they are being raised and their own complex needs. Stand provides specialist home and school social services including therapeutic care and education to children aged 5 to 12. Their daily work is to protect children from further trauma, support their recovery and enhance their well being.
Potatoes NZ Inc.’s involvement with the provision of the “Spudtacular” programme in the Stand villages represents a very small part of Stand’s overall activities to support New Zealand children and their families. Each year over 1700 children spend 5 weeks at one of Stand’s 7 villages nationwide where they are provided a variety of services to address their specific needs but many more are helped by Stand staff in schools and their homes.
The programme has been successfully running for more than five years and is based on the philosophy that ‘If you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish, you feed him for a lifetime.’ The children leave the villages with the skills and knowledge that wherever they are, whatever they are doing, a full tummy is only a potato away. Each child going to a Stand Children’s Services village:
- Experiences that a full tummy is only one potato away.
- Has a potato-based meal at least weekly while living in the village.
- Experiences that ‘if I can bake a potato I can make a meal’.
- Learns how to bake a potato in both an oven and a microwave and how to make a meal with baked beans.
- Experiences a special event where potatoes are baked on an open fire.
- Takes home recipes to feed their family.
- Each child learns Spudtacular facts. Lessons ensure the children appreciate:
- how good potatoes are for them
- that potatoes are easy to cook.
When the children go home they are given Spudtacular back sacs supplied by Potatoes NZ Charitable Trust containing:
- Potatoes supplied by Turners & Growers.
- Cans of food supplied by Heinz Wattie’s.
- Assorted resources in English, Maori or Samoan provided by Potatoes NZ Inc.
The intention of this pack is that the children can go home and cook three meals for his/her family.
The Chief Executive of Stand, Dr Fiona Inkpen says “We so appreciate the opportunity that Potatoes NZ Inc. and our other partners provide. Children love the “Spudtacular” experience and are so proud to have the skills and the ingredients to cook and serve a meal for their family. It is an experience that teaches mastery, independence and generosity – three essential ingredients for a resilient and successful life.”
Potatoes NZ Inc. are very proud to be able to work with other like minded food industry organisations to support such a wonderful organisation.
For further information on Stand Children’s Services go to http://standforchildren.org.nz/.