A pātaka kai has been established at Te Kereru Kindergarten in Whangārei. The hope is that the children are able to learn important principles of caring and teamwork in the process of maintaining their honesty box.
"A student teacher actually brought it up you know, having a pātaka reo and giving back to the community of us growing our own veggies and fruit that maybe we start somewhere out the front," says Carmelia Tangariki (Ngāti Maniapoto) one of the teachers at the kindergarten.
The stand, built by one of the grand-parents of the students, sits outside the establishment which has over 30 visitors daily, honestly taking and generously contributing every day.
The children even have the opportunity to grow their own vegetables in the bakyard of the kindergarten.
"It's a really positive way for the children to experience caring and how they can share and how they can collect fruit and veggies at home to share with the community," says kindergarten manager Raewyn Malcolm.
Tangariki says their are multiple lessons that the children learn in this process of planting, growing, and seeing the action giving kai, without expectation.
"We look at whanaungatanga and building those relation ships but its also about manaaki and the aroha that goes along side those, you know we are helping each other and about our tamariki helping them to understand what it means to give and receive and the feelings that come with that."