Having fun doing mahi for PikUp

COMMUNITY MAHI: Pictured from left are Tabea Walker, Maria Wynne, Seda Naden, Josh Cohen, Manawa Harrison and Toko Raro. Picture by Liam Clayton

Community initiative PikUp aims to reduce food waste in Tairāwhiti. Since its inception, it has picked up around 6.6 tonnes of fruits from people’s backyards and rangatahi like Te Waiotu and Maria Wynne say they have a fun time doing the mahi. Te Waiotu says to pick up fruit that would have otherwise been wasted and share the kai through the pataka system is a really cool kaupapa. For Maria, she loved the experience of pickup every single time.

“Since it was an opportunity to give back to the community and get some fresh air. Otherwise, I would have been stuck to my computer screen inside all day,” Maria says. The PikUp team last week were pictured cutting some feijoa and kiwifruit to dehydrate for snacks. Team PikUp had added two more new pataka to their existing ones.

• People wanting to register their trees for PikUp can visit the website PikUp.nz