Food Resilience

Teaching Garden

Garden volunteers welcome

Food Resilience

Food resilience is about taking control of our local food production and supply. It's a proactive approach to ensure that our communities have access to fresh, healthy, and sustainable food sources. By producing as much food as possible locally, we become part of the solution, reducing our reliance on a global food supply chain and centralised distribution systems. It's a step towards self-sufficiency, improved food security, and a more sustainable future.

Research informing our actions

In 2021, Kaipātiki Project and The University of Auckland joined forces to better understand and address food resilience within our local community. Our collaborative research project aimed to identify those in need and create connections to vital support systems. Our objectives included mapping food insecurity, pinpointing opportunities for intervention, and establishing effective connections to bridge the gap. Three interconnected themes emerged: income instability, social isolation, and disconnection from the source of sustenance – the soil. Read full Food Security Research.

Teaching Garden & Community Compost Hubs

Teaching garden Our vision is that everyone's food needs are met from local sources.

Building a sustainable edible garden is a circular process starting with improving soil fertility, planting strong seeds, maintaining plant health organically to produce nutrient-dense food, harvesting and sharing this abundance with the community, saving seeds for the next growing season, and working to the environmental conditions. All our organic material including food scraps are composted to go back into the soil, drawing down carbon and reversing climate change.

Learn through action, experience and connection
Become a garden volunteer, get your hands dirty and make new friends
Join our workshops on backyard and community gardens

We work with community groups teaching how to grow your own food and provide advice on community garden setup, sustainable practice, volunteer involvement, crop management, and compost hub operation.

Food co-op: fresh and affordable produce

Food coop

Informed by our research, we launched a local Food Co-op in partnership with Food Together. Supported by six dedicated volunteers and four community centres (Bayview Community House, Birkenhead RSA, Highbury House, and Northcote YMCA), the Food Co-op provides fresh, affordable produce to local families weekly. Surplus produce is donated to the local Pātaka Kai. Our food resilience strategy for Kaipātiki includes expanding our reach, trialling food pop-ups, offering classes, and adding new offerings to strengthen food resilience. Order your food box here.

Benefits of growing own food

Nutrient dense, nourishing and organic, plus eating what's in season
Zero waste! No plastic packaging, no food miles… just walking out to pick a lettuce
Convenient and cheaper. We encourage to use, borrow, share what's available
Building and restoring soil helps draw down carbon and reverse climate change

Whether growing on window sill, balcony in a pot, backyard, community garden, food forest, or planning to set up a urban food farm as a business, gardening and growing food is good for our mental health as we focus on something positive and alive. Now is good time to start!

Grow Your Food workshop: thank you to Jack Li and Office of Ethnic Communities

We thank our funders and supporters!

NZ Lottery Grants Board

foodtogether