What is Puāwai-kai?
Puāwai-Kai is a new, free group lifestyle education and cooking programme run by Pegasus Health.
The programme has been developed with feedback from primary care professionals and following nine pilot courses with a wide range of Cantabrians including Māori, Pasifika, men, seniors, and migrant communities. Courses start in the second school term.
During the eight-session programme, participants learn how small changes in the way they live can add up to a big change in health.
It runs for eight sessions, two hours per week. It is delivered in small groups of up to 16 participants by trained facilitators. The first three weeks focus on lifestyle changes, with kai to support each session. This is followed by five weeks of cooking – putting the ideas into action. All eight sessions end with sharing kai together.
Some of the topics, and kai, involved in the programme include:
- Enjoying a healthy relationship with food and having a routine
- Filling up with healthy foods, and making water your friend
- Sleeping well, moving, taking care of yourself and eating mindfully
- How to read a recipe and knife skills
- Why home cooking is good for health
- Turning a simple recipe into many whanau meals
- Kai to taste and cook includes: breakfast foods, curried kumara soup, salad bowls, mini vegetable quiches, nachos and chickpea and vegetable curry with rice.
The Puāwai-Kai team have also developed resources for health professionals to learn from and share with patients.
Our Puāwai-Kai team
The Puāwai-Kai team have worked together for more than five years, so the programme and name are new but the expertise and commitment are long-standing.
Team member, Wendy Scanlon, says the team includes a dietitian, nutritionist, and those with much experience in engaging with a wide range of community groups, including Māori and Pasifika.
“We are a small but diverse group. We are very proud of the new programme and believe it takes the best of the programmes we have run before (Appetite for Life and Senior Chef). We are really excited because we have taken the time to think about equity and access and believe it will make a big difference to lots of people. We’ve had very positive feedback from the people on our pilot courses, but also asked lots of questions and fed the answers into the Puāwai-Kai programme that will start in May 2022.”
How to join or refer to Puāwai-Kai?
For GPs and practice nurses: phone the Puāwai Healthy Lifestyle team on 0800 333 405.
Cover image – The Puāwai, Healthy Lifestyles Service team, from left: Lucy Carey, student Eliose Stevens, Eve Ji, Chris John, Donna Ellen, Jane Callaghan and Wendy Scanlon.
