The opening of a community garden in Mount Maunganui has shown what people can achieve by uniting and persisting, Tauranga Community Foodbank warehouse manager Jordy Gastmeier says.
She says growing fresh produce and seasonal vegetables at the Omanu Community Garden is also contributing to building a kai-resilient community.
This comes as the annual six-week Bay of Plenty Times Christmas Appeal for the foodbank is in its final week.
Gastmeier, who harvests produce from the garden every Sunday, said if they were not growing produce themselves, the foodbank would not be able to offer some types of fresh fruit and vegetables to all clients needing food support.
“I can’t purchase any more than the amounts I get in weekly, we have a budget.
“The more we grow ourselves, and the more donations of fresh produce from community gardeners to Tauranga Community Foodbank, the better.
“It means more healthy food on offer for our community members needing support.”
As a food provider, the foodbank must offer fresh, healthy, and nutritious foods. Clients were offered fruit and vegetables, and the amounts varied depending on the season.
The foodbank buys affordable, seasonal vegetables in bulk and tries to get as much as possible within its tight budget, where monthly costs are $20,000.
Gastmeier had vegetables coming into the foodbank daily from many avenues and would hand them out as soon as possible to ensure clients always received fresh produce.
“We want to be able to offer as much variety as possible and preferably locally grown to support growers within our community and the wider region,” she said.
“It’s difficult to have a consistent supply without donations from the public. It is essential I keep working hard out in the garden every week to ensure we have a lovely supply, for every day that we operate.”
The Omanu Community Gardens were officially opened to the public on December 8, and Gastmeier said it has been a special experience to be a part of the new garden.
“It has created a great space to meet other fellow gardeners and get to know more members of the community.
“It has strengthened the Tauranga Community Foodbank’s ties to others in our community.”
One of these ties was with Brian Dey who established the garden and offered the foodbank the long-term use of two garden beds.
The opening of the garden has been in the works since 2021 and Dey said the official event was “excellent”, with a good turnout of local gardeners.
Dey had to go through a “lengthy process” but said he persevered and did not lose sight of the target, which was to have a piece of land where community gardens could be built.
There were a total of 47 raised garden beds, each measuring 3.5m by 1.3m, and 0.4m deep.
Dey said community gardens were a natural evolution of a bunch of people putting their talents together towards a common purpose.
“We decided to make two of the garden beds available to the foodbank, it’s a good thing to do.
“A part of our principles is to share garden produce, time and knowledge with other people, so contributing to the community was a natural direction for us and was included in our reason for wanting a community garden.”
Dey said if the Omanu Community Garden is in a position where it could create food that can be passed on to people who need it, then that was what it should be doing.
“We can do that by giving the fresh food, where possible, to an organisation that’s moving it on responsibly and properly.”
Kaitlyn Morrell is a multimedia journalist for the Bay of Plenty Times and Rotorua Daily Post. She has lived in the region for several years and studied journalism at Massey University.