Mairtown Kindergarten: Nau mai, haere mai ki te pātaka kai o Mairtown!

Late last year the kaiako at Mairtown kindergarten started to talk about the idea of starting up a pātaka kai that we could be kaitiaki of. The Pātaka Kai/Open Street Pantry Movement is a resident led, grassroots, crowd sourced solution to immediate and local need, rescuing food and encouraging the co-sharing between neighbours to strengthen communities. Whether a need for food or a need to give, this movement facilitates neighbours helping neighbours, building community.

Those who wish to contribute may do so at their own discretion when convenient. Kai has a role of nourishing whanau tinana and wairua, while reducing stress and promoting the values of koha and manaaki. This is a way of celebrating as a culture, as an iwi, as a people. It's about that whole sense of manaakitanga. This is a judgement free movement. This is not a new idea, our ancestors have done this in many shapes & forms in the past.

In May we purchased a beautiful upcycled pātaka kai from the amazing team at the ReSort Store in Whangārei. Once it was back at kindergarten it was time to get it ready for the road side. A little waterproofing and a beautiful sign and it was ready to go.

Our pātaka was opened as part of Harvest Day, a very special annual celebration during Matiriki where whānau are able to share their abundance of what they have at home and in their māra, alongside heartfelt and positive affirmations for the receiver.

In the beginning the pātaka was a little scarce of kai, due to covid-19 our māra kai was empty and we had only just begun planting kākano/seed for the next season. We were very lucky to be given a box of “Little Gardens” by New World. Once they had grown to a decent size they were placed with the pātaka for whānau to take home and grow.

Amalia, Izzy & Jye - 3 of our top gardeners and kaitiaki of our māra kai.

In October we connected with the fabulous team at Whakaora Kai Taitokerau / Food Rescue Northland. These stars have diverted 110.9 tonne of food from Taitokerau landfill in the last 12 months. This reduces both carbon emissions and toxic leaching into water sources. Its as simple as signing up and ordering kai as it becomes available. There was a lot of korero with the tamariki about food waste at this time.

"It's so people like adults, your Mum or your aunties or if your neighbours want some they can have some. So other people can take it home. It's not good to waste food because you can share it in the pātaka kai"

- Izzy

"We have one so people can get some food without having to buy groceries if they don't have money. The food comes from the neighbours and all of the people in the country."

- Harper

"To leave food for people who don't have enough food. It's for sharing kai. People who have too much kai them put it in the pātaka kai. If you had lots of apples you could share it to the pātaka kai because if you leave them they will disintegrate. When you share it feels great because it make my heart happy, and there hearts are happy too."

- Ethan

"It feels nice to share because some people don't have food, doesn't have houses and food and some people have to steal for food., but if we share they don't have to."

- William

"It's for sharing food in. Our kids take the food and eat it for dinner. I've got apples I can bring them in last week cos if they get old they will get mouldy. It makes me feel good when I share my food cos I like it."

- Paul

"It's for food, it goes outside so the Grandmas and Poppas can make kai for everyone. I like to share because they, everyone are hungry. It will be in the rubbish if we don't share our kai"

- Kaia

Practicing sustainability empowers children to construct knowledge, explore values and develop an appreciation of the environment and its relationship to their world. This lays the foundations for an environmentally responsible adulthood. Children should be at the centre of our sustainable goals, we must educate the next generation to ensure sustainable development.

Helena delivering eggs to our neighbour who kindly gifted us fresh putiputi from his garden.

Harper and Izzy offering seedlings to our lovely neighbour.

With the help from Whakaora Kai Taitokerau the pātaka was overflowing with goodies but it seemed that people were hesitant to take what they needed. The idea is - Take what you need and leave what you can. There is no criteria, there is no koha tin or money exchanged for anything. Go have a look, if you need something, please help yourself. If you can leave something, know that your community thanks you.

“Nā tō rourou, nā taku rourou ka ora ai te iwi

With your basket and my basket we will sustain the people”

Joshua and Joash putting their home baking in the pātaka kai.

As summer comes there will be an abundance of veggies and hopefully home baking for Christmas. Thank you to our whānau who have already taken the time to bake with aroha and share the love with our community. What a beautiful way to show our tamariki what Christmas is about.

Members of our community using the Pātaka Kai.

If people do want to get involved with their local pātaka, I encourage them to add a couple of extra things in their shopping trolley every now and then or bring in veggies from their māra kai. We all know the Christmas season is hard, and this is a great way of giving back to your community.

Sharing with others, without expecting anything in return is a beautiful thing to teach. No matter how small an act of kindness is, it can have a huge impact on others lives. Watching the faces of our tamariki when they stock up the pātaka, and then seeing people from the community taking food is so very heart warming.

We thank our community for the bottom of our hearts for supporting this wonderful kaupapa.