The Downer Group team helped the Te Awamutu Community Food Forest volunteers last week.
The Downer Group team helped the Te Awamutu Community Food Forest volunteers last week.
The Te Awamutu Community Food Forest has been buzzing since its inception in 2022 and just last week, the community came together to secure the project’s future.
A team of volunteers and staff from Downer Construction were involved in planting fruit and vegetables, mulching and generalmaintenance at the Pekapekarau Reserve forest.
There are further food forests at Fawley Place Reserve and Sherwin Park.
Volunteer and trustee Brenda McIvor has been involved in the project from the start, alongside other trustees and volunteers, Megan Priscott, James Bannister and Joanne Wansbone.
“The policy is to let people come and take what they need,” McIvor said.
Local gardening businesses joined the crew on Thursday to find out more about the project, how they could become a part of it and support the project with ongoing maintenance.
Ko Wai Au Trust founder Andrew Christie (left) tends to a garden bed at Pekapekarau Reserve with a crew member and the help of Vital Harvest's Nicki Murray-Orr (green shirt) as part of the Te Awamutu Community Food Forest. Pictured in front are the environmentally friendly milk sleeves. Photo / Jesse Wood
The community has since thrown their support behind the project with Pekapekarau School children having planted vegetables.
Rangatahi from Ko Wai Au Trust have their own in-ground vegetable garden and Wintec horticulture students are tasked with pruning.
Ko Wai Au Trust co-founder Andrew Christie and his team were on the tools preparing their in-ground garden plot on Friday.
“For the last few months on the last Friday of every month, we’ve been down here helping the food forest with mulching around fruit trees,” Christie said.
“With that, we’ve partnered up with Megan and they’ve donated a vegetable patch for us to work on. Nicki is the expert helping us, so it’s not the blind leading the blind,” Christie said.
“Once we get it up and running we can start utilising the produce that’s grown to feed the community and distribute. We’ve got the Māori Women’s Welfare League helping us as well. They’re going to do cake and cookies to distribute out to whānau.
“It’s always good getting our rangatahi out helping within the community.”
Many other community groups have been involved while other businesses have donated towards the project which the group of almost 20 regular volunteers are thankful for.
If you would like to contribute, financial donations, equipment and time are always accepted with open arms.
For more information or to find out more about volunteering, visit TA Food Forest on Facebook.
Jesse Wood is a multimedia journalist based in Te Awamutu. He joined the Te Awamutu Courier and NZME in 2020.
