Her job as cook at the Koputai Early Childhood Centre in Port Chalmers has her cooking meals from scratch with plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables.
"From-scratch food is what I've tried to achieve," she said. "I don't buy anything pre-prepared."
After eight years in the job she will collate her knowledge about nutritional cooking as part of a study which examines the prevention of childhood obesity.
Mrs Thorneycroft said the study, run by the Women and Children's Health Department of Dunedin Public Hospital, would involve about 800 people and would look at obesity and what families were eating.
She would provide recipes so a book could be collated to "give young parents an idea about how they can cook nutritious, reasonably priced, attractive food for their families".
"Good nutritious food doesn't have to be fancy."
Mrs Thorneycroft encouraged parents to give their children the same food they ate, instead of the often unhealthy processed food many believed children would prefer.
The recipes would be assessed by a nutritionist and Mrs Thorneycroft had begun "scaling back" her recipes to cater for family groups rather than the children at the centre.
Although "chuffed" she had been asked to help, she was surprised, as she believed everyone cooked the way she did.
Further details about the study, which is expected to start this week, were unavailable yesterday.
