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Growing a sustainable community

“The visions we have for the future affect what we think is worth doing in the present”

In term one this year the Redwoodtown Kindergarten teaching team set about creating an Enviroschools vision. They considered what was important to them, the tamariki, whānau and community. Some of the actions that they identified after brainstorming around the Enviroschools Guiding Principles were to strengthen their community relationships, create more gardens and set up a koha table – a place to share produce and kai.

To say that it has been a busy year for the team would be an understatement. They have worked hard to make these goals become a reality. 

Mara Kai

Having been growing kai in a few small planter boxes and the corner of their grounds the team were determined that they needed more space for their mara kai. An under utilised area at the front of the Kindergarten was soon identified. This was a perfect space to develop more edible gardens. However due to low fencing around this space and a busy road it was not an ideal space to take tamariki. This problem was soon solved by the repurpose of fencing from another Kindergarten.

With this now resolved the team set about designing a plan for the space. They then reached out to the community for support with its development. Bunnings Blenheim came to the party and offered to turn this dream into a reality. Within a day, two 7 meter by 1 meter raised planter boxes were erected and filled.  They also donated seedlings for the children to plant.

On Monday the 2nd of December the new mara kai was blessed by Helen Joseph and officially opened for use. The team at Redwoodtown Kindergarten hope to engage whānau in the maintaining of the garden and in return share the produce from it.

Koha table

Alongside the planning and development of these gardens the team have also developed a relationship with Woolworths Redwoodtown and Springlands. Woolworths have set themselves a goal to no longer send any edible food to the landfill by 2025. Instead it is to be diverted to the community. So with the Kindergarten’s goal of setting up a Koha Table and the supermarket aiming to reduce food waste, this realtionship seemed like the perfect solution to both situations. The Kindergartens Pataka was soon overflowing with food from the generous contributions from the supermarkets and is now being not only distributed at Redwoodtown Kindergarten but several of the other Marlborough Kindergartens too.

The actions and relationships that Redwoodtown Kindergarten have built wholeheartedly embody the Enviroschools Guiding principle of Sustainable Communities. They have engaged with their wider community to support community and whānau. Their goal for next year is to embed the practices of caring for and growing kai in their new gardens and engage their whānau in doing this too.