Emergency surgery leads to new give-and-take stand at Aramoho Shopping Centre

Tasha Powell organised a give-and-take stand in Aramoho and filled it up with her own produce after emergency surgery forced her to close her business early. Photo / Jesse King

It all started with a bit of elbow pain, escalating to the point that Tasha Cowell felt like she was being burned by the flame of a candle.

Cowell was running her cafe on Brunswick Rd with her husband Nicolas and daughter Hayley Roberts when started to feel aches, pains and tingling.

She put her feelings down to age, but visited a specialist in Wellington anyway and discovered it was much more serious than that.

"I was going paralysed. It was really weird because I didn't know it, but my spinal cord was being compressed," Cowell says.

"My specialist told me I needed emergency surgery, I said 'the cafe closes in March or April because it's only seasonal, how about then?' and he said 'how about Monday?'"

Cowell went under the knife on November 5 and the procedure was successful. She has recovered well at her home in Aramoho.

However, due to a combination of her health and other issues, the cafe will remain closed and Cowell has retired.

She made all of the cafe's food from scratch, using vegetables from her garden at home and suddenly found herself needing something to do with them.

She started taking the produce to the All Saints church on Whanganui East's Duncan St, but then thought about the city's ever-growing food sharing stands.

Stands were created in Durie Hill, Castlecliff and Gonville last year, encouraging those in need to take food from them and others to replace items if possible.

"I thought about all of the elderly people over here in Aramoho and all of the other people who are short of money and decided to make one here," Cowell says.

"I approached everybody I could in the Aramoho Shopping Centre and kindly got permission from Jude Bartlett. She was 100 per cent for me, so were all the other businesses."

Bartlett manages Aramoho Health Centre, the front of which is now occupied by the give-and-take stand full of Cowell's lemons, cabbages, cucumbers, tomatoes and corn.

The stand was built and donated for free by Big T Home Solutions, a new business operating out of Virginia Heights and specialising in furniture made from pallets.

It has only been in place for two days, but Cowell hopes that the community will make the most of it and not be afraid to use it.

"One or two people asked me what happens if people start nicking stuff who don't need it and I said if they're nicking it then they obviously do need it," Cowell says.

"It would only rot in my garden, I can only eat so much. I've got cucumbers and tomatoes coming out of my ears."