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Victory at Polyfest will be as sweet, but there will be less sugar available out on the stands at next year’s Auckland secondary schools performing arts competition.
Ngati Whatua health provider Te Ha Oranga and Maori public health organisation Hapai Te Hauora Tapui has teamed up with the giant festival’s beverage supplier, Frucor, to reduce the amount of sugar on offer by food vendors.
Spokesperson Malina Parkinson told this week’s NZ Population Health Congress in Auckland that the aim of the project was to develop a Kai Ora policy so that the 90,000 people who attend will have more to choose from than high saturated fat, high salt and high sugar foods.
She says Polyfest is a perfect opportunity to begin changing Maori and Pasifika attitudes and behaviours about and towards food.
This year the Maori stage was sugar free and there was an environmentally friendly, sustainable water station called a Hydro-Hub near the stage.
A post-festival evaluation showed widespread support for the Kai Ora policy, and the sugar-free kaupapa will apply to all stages next year.
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