The Manaia community has worked together to establish and grow a community māra kai to help feed the people of the small south Taranaki town.
12-year-old Cooper from Manaia Primary School felt right at home helping out in the māra.
“At home I usually just plant some vegetables in our greenhouse and that and weeding, same thing we’re pretty much doing here,” Cooper says.
“We’re just helping here with the gardening and taking out the potatoes and planting some tree stuff,” he says.
Paula Anderson, Cooper's teacher, hopes that her students will regularly make trips to the māra kai to support their community.
“I think it’s amazing, I think we need to do more of this stuff and especially because it aligns with a lot of stuff within the kura,” says Paula.
“Giving back and also just replenishing Papatūānuku and keeping with our values in te ao Māori and I think our tamariki need that because not everything comes in a packet, come kai time,” she says.
“The benefits of being in the māra is whakawhanaungatanga and being able to put their hands in the māra. Just living life as their tūpuna did and then sharing that kai and the kaupapa with everyone else at the kura.”
Māra kai organiser, Teremoana Tangaroa, says that the māra kai has allowed the community to establish bonds and feed its elderly and children despite the rising cost of living and increased food prices.
“Initially established for strengthening the community, providing kai for our tamariki, sharing the knowledge with our tamariki as you would have seen today with our tamariki nō Te Kura Tuatahi o Manaia and also ki te awhi i ngā kaumatua katoa,” says Teremoana.
“When we done our harvest, we’ve only done two harvests so far, the harvests have gone to our kaumātua as a primary, long-term we would like to get our students like you seen today coming in to help harvest and take it home themselves,” she says.
