1,000 signatures reached
To: Erica Stanford, Minister of Education
Feed Our Future: Reinstate Home Economics/Food and Nutrition in the NZ curriculum
We call on the House of Representatives to urge the Ministry of Education to retain Home Economics/Food and Nutrition as a stand alone subject in the senior curriculum subject list, with dedicated curriculum, assessments, and resources.
Why is this important?
Home Economics is an essential subject that teaches rangatahi about food, nutrition, and the factors that influence the wellbeing of individuals and families - within the home and the wider community.
We equip young people with the knowledge and practical skills to make healthy, sustainable food choices. These skills support their well-being for life.
The Ministry of Education has recently announced that Home Economics/Food and Nutrition will no longer continue to be a standalone academic subject in the new NZ senior curriculum. Instead, our subject will be fragmented, with theory-based lessons around nutrition pushed into Health, and the vocational Hospitality subject left as the remaining pathway for our teens to learn cooking skills. This decision erodes the core of what this subject holds, its academic recognition, and the hands-on learning that makes it so valuable.
We equip young people with the knowledge and practical skills to make healthy, sustainable food choices. These skills support their well-being for life.
The Ministry of Education has recently announced that Home Economics/Food and Nutrition will no longer continue to be a standalone academic subject in the new NZ senior curriculum. Instead, our subject will be fragmented, with theory-based lessons around nutrition pushed into Health, and the vocational Hospitality subject left as the remaining pathway for our teens to learn cooking skills. This decision erodes the core of what this subject holds, its academic recognition, and the hands-on learning that makes it so valuable.
Home Economics is not just about cooking: it’s a rigorous, academic, evidence-based discipline that connects with health, science, and society. It is currently an NCEA and University Entrance approved subject. It supports careers in dietetics, sports nutrition, public health and policy, nutrition research, food product development and food marketing. It also provides much-needed practical skills and food literacy.
NZ is currently experiencing an obesity and diabetes epidemic, along with growing concerns that future generations are not learning the cooking skills needed to grow, gather, store, and prepare nutritious food. Home Economics/Food and Nutrition as a subject is an important tool in helping address these issues equitably.
Retaining Home Economics as a stand-alone subject is a critical investment in our nation’s future health, equity, and resilience. Removing this subject removes an important tool for addressing these issues equitably.
Please sign this petition to help us ensure that Home Economics/Food and Nutrition remains as a subject in the senior curriculum for our rangatahi.
We plan to deliver the petition formally to the House of Representatives, addressed to the Minister of Education, Erica Stanford. This ensures it is tabled in Parliament and officially acknowledged.
We plan to deliver the petition formally to the House of Representatives, addressed to the Minister of Education, Erica Stanford. This ensures it is tabled in Parliament and officially acknowledged.
“Teaching food and nutrition might be viewed as the single most important educational activity of a society; if persons do not learn to obtain and consume food so as to sustain themselves and their dependents, all other learnings are irrelevant." - Dr Joan Dye Gussow