Martinborough Kindergarten sets up Paataka Kai

You may have noticed something new sitting outside the gate at Martinborough Kindergarten recently. This is our Pataka Kai which is a community food pantry. Over the last few years, our

Kindergarten has been on a journey towards using more sustainable practices and part of this journey included us joining Enviro Schools. During one of our enviro school hub meetings we noticed a Paataka Kai at another Kindergarten and this inspired us to make our own. We thought this would be a great place to share produce from our garden with our whaanau and provide a place where they could also share kai from their gardens. This provides the opportunity to share, show

manaakitanga to each other and also reduce food wastage. Food is expensive, so it would be so

good if we could help each other out by sharing what we can. The paataka kai is also the perfect

place to share our paper bricks which are made by our tamariki. They are made from recycled paper

and are great for starting wood fires.

After coming up with a design we enlisted the help of local builder, Malcolm Blown, who used

recycled wood and materials kindly donated by Martinborough Mitre10, who have helped us out

many times over the years. Initially the idea was that it would sit inside the Kindergarten grounds,

but after a team discussion we decided it would be great if the community could access it also. We

have a lot of foot traffic that goes past our gate so we thought the location would be perfect. Since

it’s placement, we’ve had lots of positive comments from the community which is heartening to

hear. We’ve even had whaanau come past to check if we had carrots so they could take it home to

their Mum to cook for their tea. Sorry we didn’t have carrots this time, but keep checking and maybe

next time there will be!

Our next step is to add some wooden signage which is being designed and made for us by Martin

who runs TOYMAKER workshops at our Kindergarten.

The Paataka Kai is for everyone and anyone and is ready for use so please, if you have any excess

produce you wish to share, come and use our paataka kai and if you need anything, please don’t be

shy, come and help yourself. We want the food to be used and not go to waste, it’s there for

everyone.

We’d like to take this opportunity to thank M.J Blown Builders Ltd, Martinborough Mitre10 and

Martin from TOYMAKER for helping to make our vision possible.

Please spread the word!

Teachers in photo left to right:

Jane McMahon, Megan Gibson, Allie Hiemstra, Ali Diamond and Corina Lawson