Page 28 - November 2021 IB FINAL

Pacific Health Pacific Health

MALAPOA

SERVES UP AELAN KAIKAI

Malapoa College Principal, Shem Simon is served a lunch of aelan kaikai.

By Len Garae It is the first pilot project of its kind anywhere in the coun-
try. Another secondary school, the Francophone Lycee Antoine
The kitchen of Malapoa College was full of the sound of de Bougainville (LAB) will also join the pilot.
sizzling and stirring, and smells that made my imagination run The Chairman of Indigenous Agro-Industry Council (INAC),
wild when I visited recently. Alain Jacobe says eventually they intend to “go local” at all
That day, the college’s 1,600 students lunched on grated secondary schools, reaching some 70,000 students.
pumpkin, banana and manioc, served with coconut milk. They Malapoa College Principal Shem Simon says they are already
had two slices of extremely tender veal, and finely chopped seeing a drop in the quantity of food wastage in bins; since
cabbage on the side, and finished the meal with three slices the trial began it has been reduced to five kilos.
of sweet watermelon each. A participating chef, Annabelle Abel says they want to
The all-local menu is the product of a decision by Vanuatu’s tempt the “taste buds” of the students with their recipes and
Council of Ministers to ban imported rice and all other im- as far as she can see, it is working.
ported food products from the top secondary institution. And
the college has hired more than 20 unemployed chefs from A colonial legacy
hotels and restaurants closed due to the pandemic, to cook The importation of food began during the British and French
and serve the students. colonial period over 40 years ago.

28 Islands Business, November 2021