A Whangārei mum is helping Northland’s kaumātua and kuia save a little bit of pūtea and still make good, healthy kai.

Vlogger and founder of Mumma’s Kitchen Kirsten Holtz will be teaching whānau how to cook healthy meals cheaply as well as preparing for sickness and flu this winter in her Haurora Wānanga tomorrow at Tai Tokerau Wānanga Marae (Raumanga).

The workshop is part of the winter wellness campaign to encourage families to look after their health.

“The workshop is in conjunction with Mumma’s Kitchen, a vlog my family helped me put together when the pandemic began.”

What started as a kindergarten activity has now turned into a Facebook page with just over 80,000 followers.

Holtz was teaching kids at Raumanga Kindergarten how to bottle peaches to help families save money.

However, they had a rāhui during the lockdown.

The 54-year-old put up a video on the kindergarten Facebook page and it received a lot of attention.

“I asked my daughter to take my video on her phone to show people how to make bottled peaches.

“There is nothing flash about what we do, it is simple and practical tips, sort of things we did when we had our kids at home.

“It is just to give families a hand.”

Holtz said Saturday’s workshop was a step towards many good health initiatives out there to support kaumātua, including healthy eating, exercising and vaccination, among others.

“It is to protect our old people as best as we can.”

Holtz has also begun a $5 per week programme for her Kitchen and said she was supporting the kaumātua and kuia to do the same as well.

“We encourage people to keep $5 aside from, or as part of, their groceries and to buy extra food over and above non-perishable food that they can set aside for emergencies.

“For example, canned goods in situations like redundancies, or when they are a bit tight on cash.”

Mumma’s Kitchen has got 5000 people taking part in the programme and they would be setting up kaumātua with some packs to start their own food storage cupboard.

“These are our people, community and to give back is good.

“Especially with everything going around – flu epidemic, Covid-19 and high cost of living.”