At BestStart Waihopai Kindy, learning about healthy food is happening right in our backyard!
Our tamariki have been busy growing their very own strawberries, cucumbers, and tomatoes in our brand new community garden planter boxes.
This idea came about after a kōrero with Judy Cook from Invercargill Plunket. Plunket’s own community garden sometimes can’t meet all the needs of local families - so we thought, why not grow different veggies and work together? By growing different crops, we’re able to share more widely and help more whānau.
Our garden is a true community project. MenzShed Invercargill kindly built our planter boxes, Nicholls Garden Centre donated soil, and Diacks Nurseries gave us the plants. Ngā mihi nui to these awesome helpers! Our tamariki have absolutely loved looking after the garden. They check on it every day, eagerly waiting for the strawberries to ripen - making sure to pick only the red ones! Through watering, watching the flowers turn to fruit, and sharing their discoveries, the children are learning firsthand where kai comes from and how to care for living things.
Once our crops are ready, we’ll pop them in a little shed at the front of our centre for whānau to collect, or bundle them with Plunket’s veggies to share with those who need it most. With rising grocery costs, we hope this helps support our community. Thank you to everyone who’s helped make this project possible!
If you’d like to get involved, come and see us—or just pop by and admire the garden’s progress with your child.