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What is Fresh Made?

Fresh Made is a Heart Foundation service that helps food suppliers, school canteens and early learning services make their food healthier for students.

If you’re a food supplier, school canteen, or early learning service Fresh Made can provide comprehensive resources to help you make healthier choices. Our resources include menu assessment, tips on how to make menu changes and help with recipe development.

Why is this needed?

Over the last few years, many schools and early learning services have started to outsource their lunch programmes where the meals are provided by local food suppliers, such as bakeries, cafes and takeaways. Ordering school lunches online is fast becoming the new normal for many New Zealand families.

Fresh Made supports food suppliers and school canteens to make these fresh-made foods healthier.

How does it work?

  1. Food suppliers, school canteens or boarding school caterers submit their menus and recipes to us for assessment. 
  2. The recipes are analysed, and feedback and advice are given on any changes that could be made to meet the Fresh Made criteria.
  3. If the changes are made your company becomes a Fresh Made registered company and we’ll list you on our website. Once registered you can start marketing your new healthy menu.

To find out more about the menu requirements, please contact us.

Benefits for schools

Consuming healthy foods and drinks every day not only improves students’ overall health but can also improve their concentration and behaviour.

Here are some of the ways Fresh Made can benefit your school or early learning service:

  • Contribute to the health of children by providing healthier freshly made foods which will improve children’s attendance, behaviour and performance.
  • Demonstrate to parents that your school is taking responsibility for children’s education, their health and wellbeing.

Benefits for food suppliers

  • We can help you meet the growing demand for healthier freshly made foods.
  • Receive marketing exposure to schools and early learning services across New Zealand through the Heart Foundation network.

Resources

Fresh Made provides the following resources to assist lunch providers to achieve registration and create healthier foods that meet the Fresh Made guidelines.

  • Standardised recipes - These recipes are specifically developed to meet Fresh Made Criteria and can be altered and personalised to meet your students' tastes and preferences.
  • Sample menus - Get inspired with our seasonal sample menus for schools and early learning services.
  • Blogs – Tips about healthy cooking, planning your menu and healthy ingredient choices.

Register as a food supplier

If you are a food supplier and would like to register with Fresh Made, please contact our team.

Email our team

Who's registered for Fresh Made?

The following organisations are currently registered for Fresh Made and are committed to providing healthier meal choices for children.

FED. has been making freshly prepared meals for kiwi homes, schools and businesses since 2018. We are a proud supplier in the Ministry of Education’s Ka Ora Ka Ako healthy school lunch programme where we provide 3500 lunches daily to schools in South Auckland.

Quality and care is at the heart of what we do at FED. We work hard to develop meals that kids will love and will also be parent approved. From lunch packs, snacks through to daily hot meals we have something to suit all appetites.

School canteens can also access our bulk hot meals which give you the convenience and flexibility to reheat and serve meals using our MoE approved dishes. All meals have a health star rating of 4 or more.

Sustainability is also incredibly important in our business and all FED. meals have been thoughtfully packaged in compostable packaging.

Schools can contact us directly to find out more at hello@getfed.co.nz or visit us at www.getfed.co.nz

Go-Deli is a food service company based on Auckland's North Shore. They have two departments – a café/restaurant and outsource catering, which is big enough to deliver.

The popular Go-Deli Café was established in 2003, at 60 Constellation Drive, Mairangi Bay. Go-Deli Catering has been working with Ezlunch since 2010, offering specifically designed menus for children.

Go-Deli Catering is the largest school-order caterer in north Auckland, providing high quality, reasonably priced lunches to students every day. They are dedicated to bringing healthiness to families at affordable prices and with convenience.

For more information visit www.godeli.co.nz. To view the Go-Deli school lunch menu visit Ezlunch's website www.ezlunch.co.nz.

Scots College believes it is important to offer a balanced nutritious diet for its students, staff and visitors to the College.

Scots College is a world-class independent Presbyterian day and boarding school for students from years 1 to 13. Both the tuck shop and dining hall, known as Chartres Hall, are proud to have committed to offer Fresh Made meals that support its students and staff in getting the best-balanced diet that will help them not only in meeting their educational needs but their sporting needs also. Chartres Hall caters for the over 100 boarding students who live on site and provides lunch for around another 50 day students across years 7 to 13.

Scots College has a diverse range of cultures and many international students living in the boarding house. This is reflected in their menus, which offer the broadest range of cuisines possible over the term and celebrate the special dates and events that fall in between.

A typical day in Chartres Hall would start with a full continental breakfast: fresh fruit salad, yoghurt, smoothies, seeded or wholemeal toast breads, a variety of different muesli and cereals, as well as scrambled and poached eggs, which are always a favourite. For lunch there is a daily sandwich and salad bar with a selection of lean meats, all roasted and sliced onsite, with pitas and wraps to choose from and then two hot dishes, for example, vegetable stir fry rice or a slow cooked coconut & tamarind pork curry. In the evening a selection of lean meats like grilled fish or marinated chicken thigh are available accompanied with vegetables, salads and a carbohydrate, such as roasted root vegetables or brown rice. The selection changes daily and is always seasonal and fresh. Every meal includes a selection of fruit to choose from.

The College’s tuck shop meets the Fresh Made guidelines through the fresh counter food that is produced each day as well as a daily special provided straight from Chartres kitchen. All drinks sold in the tuckshop are low or sugar free and fresh fruit salads are available daily. In addition, all packaging for over the counter sales use 100% recyclable biodegradable containers.

Day-care catering for healthy, happy kids.

It’s a huge relief for any parent to know that their kids are fed healthy food, even when they are being looked after by a care provider. Windy Ridge can set minds at rest with delicious and nutritious meals and snacks for childcare facilities, ensuring that food is prepared with an expert hand and teachers are left to do what they do best - teach and nurture our little ones!

We can provide a variety of food that is delivered fresh each day to suit the needs of your centre, including catering to individual dietary requirements. Quality and convenience are the hallmarks of our day-care catering, with a focus on creating healthy eating habits at a young age. This means that the kids receive tasty meals prepared in a registered commercial kitchen to exacting standards, while the staff can focus entirely on providing top-notch care. There is no reheating and no dishes to be done when you opt for our catering service, just serving up a wide variety of flavours that we - as experienced childcare caterers - know children love to eat.

Windy Ridge is the first Fresh Made registered food service provider to cater to early learning services.

Ka Pai Kai Rotorua is a not-for-profit school lunch service in Rotorua, that makes nourishing school lunches fresh to order each day. 

Ka Pai Kai Rotorua makes the healthy choice the easy choice, with lunches made using high quality ingredients. You won't find any added sugars, processed meats or highly refined flours in our lunches. We use exclusively free-range eggs, and locally grown produce where it is available. We care about the environment too so we use compostable packaging wherever it is available. 

We know that price is a barrier to many families so we sell our lunches at cost, or even below cost. We are able to do this thanks to the generosity of the volunteers, corporate sponsors and donors who support our kaupapa. Thanks to the support of the Rotorua community, our lunches are great value for money and affordable for everyone.

To find out more visit the Ka Pai Kai Rotorua facebook page.

We serve school lunches to Auckland schools from east to west including city central schools. We provide a wide range of healthy food choices to kids, including warm dishes, cold items, drinks, and snack items. Our menu includes items which kids can have every day or sometimes. We have a huge range of options such as sushi, scones, fruits, salad, pasta, rice dishes, burgers, pizza, and many more.  

Ordering is easy. Just go to the Ezlunch website, set up an account and place your order online. You can also order in advance for any day.