What natural disasters teach us about food, poverty and gardens – Zero Hunger Collective
Shortly after the tropical cyclone Gabrielle hit the South Kaipara region, food, diesel or petrol was in short supply for locals. People couldnt get to the top of the South Head, because the road known by locals as the golden staircase was damaged. In the days following the storm Gemma Donaldson, CEO of South Kaipara Good Food (SKGF), and her team worked with the Defence Force, Auckland Emergency Management and the local fire chief Leah Hide to get two helicopters to make two air drops to the top of South Head. A further five helicopter food drops were facilitated, the bulk of which was provided to the Muriwai community via the Kai Hub in Te Awaroa Helensville. The crisis highlighted the fragility of coastal communities. One blocked road cut off a region from essential supplies. It also underscored the loss of local food production and supply. READ MORE: * How to eat more organic food during the cost of living crisis * Suburb Spotlight: Helensville, a hidden foodie paradise just 40 minutes from Auckland * Cheat Sheet: What is a national food plan, and how would it help our food security? When I was a kid, my mum had a beautiful garden. We would give the neighbours some tomatoes, they would give us some cucumbers, and then you've got a salad, says Donaldson. Over the last couple of generations, weve lost that community connection and sharing of surplus. For South Kaipara Good Food it's about getting back to that indigenous knowledge and the community knowledge about how you better use your land, and in turn build connection and resilience Food resilience means access to food at times of crisis. Less dramatically, but just as essential, is what happens in ordinary times. For the award-winning non-profit, that means being involved in things like food rescue, providing food boxes to those experiencing food insecurity, and working with local schools on school gardens. These are used to supplement lunches for kids that have come to school without any, as well as using produce grown on-site in cooking classes. Donaldson says at one of their local primary schools there are around 40 kids out of 500 that come to school without food, more than once a week. SKGF work with local schools providing food rescue. From their hub in Te Awaroa Helensville, Donaldson and team, plus about 32 volunteers also run wellbeing and education programmes, helping to share local knowledge and community wisdom on growing kai covering everything from what to grow and when, to the creation of market and urban gardens. More than a foodbank, South Kaipara Good Food and other agencies like it around the country are working hard to address the range of challenges connected with food insecurity. Donaldson says their volunteers do about 500 hours of work per month, empowering and encouraging communities towards kai resilience. They are also one of 30 agencies that contributed to a national research project by Kore Hiakai Zero Hunger Collective , looking at ways to join up local efforts and develop a national strategy to end food poverty in New Zealand. Theres been a huge rise in demand at food banks as the number of Kiwis experiencing food poverty has grown. The challenges have been escalated by the pandemic and extreme weather events, says Tric Malcolm, Pou Arahi Executive Officer of the Collective. Communities have done a huge amount over the past few years, and organisations stepping up to meet the need is fantastic, says Malcolm. Organisations such as the one run by Gemma Donaldsons achieve so much on tiny resources. Food insecurity is experienced by people, but driven by systems, says Malcolm. Food banks and the like only deal with immediate food insecurity needs. Without a systematic approach, their growth could lead to greater dependency. For all our people to have dignified access to enough good food, we need a systematic, Te Tiriti-grounded, approach one that recognises food insecurity is a symptom generated by complex root causes like low wages, the cost of housing, and lengthy food supply chains. If we have a mana-centred values-based food system, we might be able to build something which can be used locally or even nationally, but at the moment we have nothing to guide us as a country. Sarah Heeringa was a guest at Festival for the Future conference in Wellington, June 8-9.