On The Up: Waitara community garden grows kai and connection at St John’s Church

Waitara Foodbank runs the community vegetable garden.

In the quiet town of Waitara, Taranaki, you will find St John’s Anglican Church surrounded by well-producing vegetable beds.

This community vegetable garden, run by the Waitara Foodbank, not only produces kai for the local community but also provides education on growing, cooking, and raising seeds.

It is a place to gather and enjoy the company of others, share a cuppa and spend time with your hands in the soil.

A random conversation between some church members and Amy Olsen, the manager of the Waitara Foodbank, resulted in Olsen deciding to take on a previous garden project started by the church.

A message on Facebook asking the community if they could donate some of the items needed to set up the community garden, such as seedlings, tools, compost, etc, resulted in the community of Waitara donating 90% of what was needed, all in less than a week.

They received tools from the local Menzshed, and seeds from Seedsavers Taranaki.

The Junction – Reuse Shop helped with items needed, and the community got behind it, dropping off surplus items.

On top of all that generosity, they were even given a greenhouse.

This community garden does more than make itself available to those who need the beautiful kai.

It holds Kōia sessions, a holistic, gardening-based health initiative (building on the existing Green Prescription), which encourages participation in community gardening for your wellbeing.

This initiative is backed by health professionals and community organisations, with one of the aims to make healthy activity more accessible and enjoyable.

While these vegetables are available for the community, many volunteers come and donate time, pulling weeds and planting seedlings, because they enjoy the company and the knowledge that they are helping the community.

“When there is a special project to be worked on in the garden, I put a note on Facebook and honestly, within half an hour we can have up to 15 people turn up to help,” Olsen said.

The garden has been a year in the making, and since it was started, the church has kindly donated more of its grounds to be used by the community gardens.

In early November, Sustainable Taranaki is organising a garden trail.

The Waitara Community Gardens are on the trail, open to visitors to see what they do.

“One of the aims of the community garden is to share gardening knowledge and encourage anyone who is keen to have a vegetable garden in their own backyard,” Olsen said.

“And for those who can’t, due to their living situation, they can enjoy sharing time in the community garden or just enjoy a chat.

“Gardens grow vegetables, orchards grow fruit, but community gardens grow people.”