25 May 2009 - A new toolkit detailing and celebrating projects to improve food security for Maori is being launched by the Obesity Action Coalition today.

Food Security Among Maori in Aotearoa - Part II is designed to give communities ideas about what they can do to improve their food security. Food security exists when all whanau, at all times, are able to access enough safe and nutritious foods to live an active and healthy life.

The toolkit was developed by Te Hotu Manawa Maori (THMM) an organisation that delivers by Maori for Maori health services. THMM nutrition and physical activity manager, Leonie Matoe says while there is considerable disparity in the levels of food security between Maori and non-Maori, there are a number of projects around the country which are helping to lessen that disparity.

"Food security is not about personal choice alone. It is often the result of environmental factors such as the proximity of the household to quality supermarkets and to fast food outlets. "Many Maori live in socially deprived areas where it is difficult to access healthy food.

But there are some wonderful projects around the country that are making a demonstrable difference. "These include kohanga growing their own fruit and vegetables, a kura planting feijoa trees as a windbreak, a marae purchasing fruit wholesale and selling it on to whanau for no profit, and local health providers advocating for petrol stations to sell fruit instead of having specials on unhealthy foods like chocolate bars."

She says obesity and food insecurity are linked. "Research shows that households that are the least food-secure have people with the highest body mass index. This is because foods high in fat and sugar are the cheaper option."

Leone Matoe also says it is vital that solutions to issues of food security are found by Maori themselves. "Maori need to develop solutions to our own food security problems, solutions that are based on a kaupapa Maori approach. It is this approach that makes the projects in this toolkit successful."