Pip's successes

PIP’S

SUCCESSES

Words by Glenys Christian

Finalists and judges at the 2020 Kiwi Kids Can Cook Competition

Pip Duncan, who retired as education and marketing manager at vegetables.co.nz at the end of May, has been praised by chairman Andre de Bruin.

“Pip’s fantastic work in driving the Cooking Curriculum Project will have lasting benefits for the nation’s health and for vegetable growers,” he says.

“What she has been able to achieve along with our project partners The Heart Foundation, the Home Economics and Technical Teachers Association (HETTANZ), the NZ Association of Intermediate and Middle Schools (NZAIMS) and the Ministry of Health will ensure a new generation of consumers for vegetables.”

The registered dietician’s move to work for vegetables.co.nz came when she was asked to edit Fresh Inspiration, the vegetables.co.nz tabloid for culinary professionals. She then became the education and marketing manager, running evidence-based, peerreviewed campaigns for all sectors from early childhood education through to aged care.

Pip has had a lead role in the vegetables.co.nz partnership with The Heart Foundation for the Curriculum Project. This work followed from the Massey University Curriculum research with Year 7 and 8 teachers in 2016, which identified that only 13% of students were able to plan and prepare a complete meal as a key learning objective. Teachers asked for relevant teaching tools and resources in order to equip their students with fundamental life skills to be able to cook a healthy meal within their own budget, cultural and time constraints.

This led to the 2018 launch of Year 7 and 8 Unit plans and resources, based on the technology process, developed with teachers for teachers.

“We’re definitely moving in the right direction,” she says. “Kids are learning to love vegetables.”

Pip has attended many health conferences as well as conferences for teachers and cooking professionals to promote vegetables, as well as being involved in organising and judging two nationwide competitions sponsored by vegetables.co.nz. The Kiwi Kids Can Cook (KKCC) final will be held in November, and the prestigious National Secondary School Culinary competition in September. In 2020, both these competitions held four weeks of online promotions with kids presenting their vegetables dishes in short videos. Fortunately, eight regional finals of KKCC were held between lockdowns, and a grand final was held in November in Auckland with kids from the Far North to South Canterbury competing.

Pip has been involved with producing the Easy Meals with Vegetables recipe cards with colleagues from The Heart Foundation and the Health Promotion Agency. She has particularly enjoyed developing the Meet the Grower videos over the last seven years, in which individual growers explain the process from planting to harvest of a specific vegetable. These videos are extremely popular with teachers and several are now embedded into the Ministry of Education’s programmes across different school levels. Over 69,000 people viewed the videos on vegetables.co.nz YouTube last year.

In total the vegetables.co.nz website now has 1.1 million users, an increase of 42% through 2020 with growth continuing this year.

Another big success has been the Forum-on-wheels initiative which takes key influencers to visit growers to see first-hand how vegetables are grown, harvested and packed.

“Food writers, chefs and teachers are extremely interested in where their vegetables come from and the stories behind them,” Pip says.

And what does retirement hold for her?

“I’m really looking forward to more home renovations, more trips to Hawke’s Bay, more bridge, and more travel eventually.” And she would like to thank the growers, especially those who have been on the vegetables.co.nz committee, with special thanks to Keith Vallabh, Andre de Bruin and business manager, the late John Seymour, for their encouragement and support over the years.

Pip Duncan