{"id":4083,"date":"2025-10-16T08:38:28","date_gmt":"2025-10-15T22:38:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/g8education.edu.au\/?p=4083"},"modified":"2025-10-17T12:13:50","modified_gmt":"2025-10-17T02:13:50","slug":"national-nutrition-week-world-of-learning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/g8education.edu.au\/news\/national-nutrition-week-world-of-learning","title":{"rendered":"World of Learning Holland Park West celebrates National Nutrition Week with family cookbook"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Holland Park local Rosemary Doyle has worked at World of Learning Holland Park West<\/a> as a Cook for more than seven years and knows that the way to a child\u2019s heart is through their stomach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mother of two, Rosemary has learnt many different ways over the years to ensure children eat their food, as she cooks nutritious meals for 75 children and 20 team members each week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMany parents at the centre kept asking me for my recipes so we created a cookbook which includes almost 20 recipes of all the meals that their children love to eat at World of Learning Holland Park West. The cookbook has been so well received,\u201d said Rosemary. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI know a lot of the children go home at night and rave to their parents about the food they\u2019re given in the centre. So much so, that it was a child\u2019s birthday a few weeks ago, his mum asked him what he wanted to eat for his birthday dinner, and he replied with Miss Roro\u2019s Spaghetti Bolognese. She even offered him McDonald\u2019s as a special birthday treat but he had his heart set on my spaghetti. Unfortunately for his mum, he told her he didn\u2019t like the spaghetti that she cooks, so she had to pretend to pick it up from me in the centre, but really she cooked the recipe in the cookbook and he ate it all at home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI feel really chuffed when I hear that the children are happy to eat my meals, but that they\u2019re also asking their parents for those same meals at home as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe have a few children here who eat three, four or five bowls of their lunch, and then will go home and tell their parents that they\u2019re too full so they don\u2019t want to eat their dinner. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cParents are surprised because their child may not eat that much at home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAs long as they\u2019re consuming a healthy amount of all five food groups, they burn it all off when they\u2019re running around with their friends in the playground.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI often will hide vegetables in the meals I make. The hidden vegetables could be pumpkin, sweet potato, carrot, zucchini, capsicum or spinach. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEverything the children eat here meets national nutritional guidelines. Some of the children\u2019s favourite meals are: spaghetti bolognese, nachos, sandwiches, chicken and mushrooms, butter chicken and fried rice. Some of their favourite snacks are cauliflower muffins, beetroot balls and zucchini muffins.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOther ways I\u2019ve found that helps encourage some of the more fussy eaters are to sit with them and ask them to try it for me, or other children will say to them \u201cEat this \u2013 it\u2019s delicious,\u201d so that encouragement from their peers can often help too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnother way to encourage children to eat a wider variety of foods is to get them involved in grocery shopping whether that\u2019s online or in store, or asking them to help with cooking or preparing food, so that could be washing vegetables, making sandwiches or helping to bake muffins.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019ve found that by getting children involved in preparing food, they are more likely to try to eat it. If they change their mind, that\u2019s fine as you can blitz the vegetables and incorporate it into the meal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCooking healthy nutritious meals gives the children energy throughout the day, it strengthens bones, supports brain and cognitive development and it can improve their immune systems. Feeding healthy meals to children while they\u2019re young also creates good eating habits, so they\u2019re less likely to be exposed to junk food.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not just the children I feed, I provide meals to the educators too. All of the team love the recipes as well.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The theme for this year\u2019s National Nutrition Week is \u2018love what you eat\u2019. When asked how Rosemary ensures the children at World of Learning Holland Park West love what they eat, she replied with, \u201cWhen I get a chance, I go into the rooms or the playground and ask what the children actually want to eat. They tell me what they like and don\u2019t like. I will often walk into the rooms during lunch and ask them if today\u2019s lunch is a hit, they\u2019ll tell me yes or no. They\u2019re pretty good with their meals here. Not a lot of food comes back to my kitchen.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rosemary\u2019s tricks to encourage children to eat nutritious meals<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n