Come on Levin: Share your garden bounty around through food stall

Te Whare Mahana Community Hub at 32 Bristol St, Levin, is now hosting the former Gordon Place food stall.

Te Whare Mahana community hub, formerly known as Jack Allen Hub, keeps adding services and more recently took over the Gordon Place food stall.

That raised a range of new ideas including a call for volunteers to go around and harvest fruit and vegetables that property owners can no longer deal with to share with other.

Do you have surplus fruit and vegetables in your garden? Do you want to share it with others, rather than see it go to waste? If you do, you can now take it to the community fresh food stand at Te Whare Mahana.

The stand was established by local Levin man Antonio Cioffi in 2018 for people to share surplus fruit, vegetables, and other useful food products.

Mr Cioffi is moving it from its original spot outside his Gordon Place lifestyle block to the Te Whare Mahana Community Hub at 32 Bristol St, behind the RSA.

The Hub co-ordinators Victoria Gregory and Faalele Puluseu-Pitone Iese are excited by the development, and say Te Whare Mahana is the ideal place for the stand.

"It means people who live closer to town will have easier access to either deliver their surplus food or take free produce," said Victoria.

"We have an increasing number of people coming through our doors, including those involved in community service networking, and individuals and families in desperate need of fresh food."

Victoria said people are welcome to drop off any fruit and vegetables they have to share, or to take produce for free.

"Horowhenua is a place of horticultural abundance, with many established gardens and fruit trees. Often people have an abundance of seasonal fruit and vegetables they don't know what to do with or aren't able to pick or gather themselves," she said.

"The stand could also grow to be a place where people share their extra homemade preserves, seedlings, flowers, herbs, eggs, etc. We're very open to new ideas for things to share.

"We are looking for volunteers to help with looking after the stand, picking and collecting fruit and veggies from gardens or sharing any surplus crops you may have, even growing a bit extra to help our community.

"This is for everyone to benefit from. Share what you can, take what you need and leave produce for others."

They have been impressed so far. The food stall sits outside the front door so is accessible 24 hours a day.

"People bring food every day and a lot of it. It doesn't stay here long either."

If you want to get involved with supporting the Fresh Food Stall contact the hub: 06 3681195 or email info@tewharemahana.org.

You can find The Te Whare Mahana community hub at 32 Bristol Street behind the RSA building.