EATucation believes in empowering kura and kaiako by providing life-changing lessons that nourish learners and their communities

Empowering Tamariki for a Complex World
Our tamariki need the tools and education to navigate an increasingly complicated world. Food literacy is about understanding food’s impact on people and how food connects to each aspect of our daily lives. It is a lens for understanding how food can improve our personal, planetary, and community well-being.

The Systemic Roots of Food Illiteracy
The causes of food illiteracy have systemic roots that have built up over generations. Social, political, economic, and historical factors are at play, and this complex challenge requires our care, consideration, and understanding.

The Opportunity to Make a Difference
With EATucation, we have the opportunity to ensure that all tamariki leave school with food & environmental literacy. Giving our tamariki the gift of food literacy can improve all New Zealanders' life-long health outcomes, build stronger, more resilient communities, and reduce our impact on Te Taiao.

Addressing Disparities and Health Outcomes
Due to disparities in opportunity and societal changes, we have falling rates of home cooking and declining food literacy among our tamariki. Nationally, 40% of premature deaths are linked to poor diet, costing the Health Sector $1 billion a year.

The Power of Early Education
There is now overwhelming research to show that regular, well-crafted, bite-sized helpings of food & environmental education from Early Childhood Education (ECE) onwards have profound and lasting positive impacts. These benefits can be seen in the life expectancy of tamariki, their academic performance, and improved learning outcomes. These improvements also extend to the emotional and behavioral development of tamariki and underpin self-regulation, self-care, and care for others.

Reclaiming Knowledge for Future Generations
It takes one generation to lose a taonga, but three generations to regain it. You can help by supporting our communities to reclaim this valuable knowledge and ensure the safety of our future.

Supporting Kaiako with Ready-Made Resources
EATucation’s ready-made resources reduce kaiako workloads, allowing them to build stronger learning-focused relationships that support learners in enhancing their mental health and emotional resilience and forging lifelong connections to sustainable practices. Our school-wide approach provides this invaluable life extending learning in a range of resources that can be used by specialist food kaiako AND by classroom kaiako. 

The Food Literacy Journey
Our resources utilize Te Mātaiaho and Te Whāriki to take learners from food illiteracy to food awareness, to becoming empowered food champions! This food literacy journey equips learners to make informed food choices and grow up to be food literate leaders. We also provide whānau-packs so ākonga can take their learning home and share it with their community.

Comprehensive Access for All Kaiako
Once a school signs up for the EATucation program, all kaiako have access to all of EATucation’s units. Our resources also include tikanga and te reo Māori activities. Plus, for those moments in need, we have ready-made relief lessons.

Streamlining Assessment and Reporting
Our Assessment Tasks for Learning help kaiako measure success and efficacy. They ease the burden of reporting, streamline grading, and capture growth.

Fostering Literacy, Numeracy, and Life Skills We understand the importance of effectively teaching literacy and numeracy. That’s why our resources develop these key competencies every step of the way.

Prioritizing Relational and Cultural Learning
Tamariki can create a personalized account within our App to refer to learning and recipes from home; however, we believe tamariki learn best off screens. Our resources draw on the bioecological model and sociocultural theories to prioritize relational teaching strategies and games-based learning. Kaupapa Māori and Pasifika pedagogies underpin these methodologies to ensure tamariki are active participants in their learning and can utilize and value their prior knowledge and cultural heritage while learning from one another.

EATucation is an innovative well-being focused Social Enterprise that delivers life-changing, evidence-based food & environment education to learners of all ages.

📱 Easy Access Through Digital Platforms
Kaiako access our resources through our easy-to-use Desktop or Mobile App. Here kaiako will find step-by-step lesson plans, engaging learner resources, and exciting videos to inspire curiosity and guide the learning journey.

🌦️ Seasonal, Themed Units for All Ages
Our resources are structured around themed units that celebrate each season’s produce and are separated into the following curriculum phases: ECE, Years 0-3, 4-6, 7-8, 9-10, NCEA 1, 2, and 3.

🌈 Differentiated Learning Opportunities
Each unit has a range of extension activities to allow for tamariki differentiation. These are complemented by sustainability & food education Literacy & Numeracy tasks, and supplementary te reo & Mātauranga Māori activities.

🚀 A Comprehensive Food Literacy Framework
EATucation has developed our Food Literacy Framework to ensure our program delivers what the New Zealand Curriculum requires and what tamariki need to live life to the fullest! This framework has 12 dimensions that cover the breadth and depth of learning opportunities that food education provides.

🏆 Aligned with Curriculum Standards
The 12 dimensions connect to Te Mātaiaho and Te Whāriki and are explored in greater detail using the most up-to-date pedagogical research and the Curriculum Design Coherence Model (CDCM) to provide a seamless learning experience that balances conceptual foundations, teaching content, and learners’ competencies.

Centering Learners’ Needs
The needs of our learners are at the heart of everything we do. They are our future, and the gifts we give them will be those they can offer in return. We prioritize their needs by listening to learners and giving them the tools they have asked for. We value their needs and follow the research that tells us food education is life-extending, life-enriching, and cannot be left to chance. Learners love our engaging resources that connect them to a world of food that is currently beyond the reach of too many.

Supporting Kaiako in Their Mission
Our collective food literacy is in decline, and kaiako have a role to play in turning this around. Too often, kaiako are expected to do more with less, and too often, professional development skips over the ‘how’. Our ready-made resources are solutions-focused and accessible, reducing kaiako workloads while delivering valuable learning.

Empowering Whānau for Food Security
EATucation is born of the need to do better by whānau. We have heard from whānau across the country that food is a source of stress, and many face acute hardship. The cost-of-living crisis has put further strain on our whānau and their tamariki. Our resources are built to empower whānau to achieve food security one meal at a time.

Nurturing School Communities
School communities are the soil that supports our nation’s future. We understand the complex and challenging times we are in and have developed a program that attends to our nation’s needs, ensuring there is a pathway forward. We do this by listening and responding with actions and evidence. As we continue to know better, we will continue to do better.