Most Flavours of Plenty festival events are aimed at adults – but one definitely isn’t. Te Puke Kai Resilience group and Colab are hosting a Kids Kai Trail on April 5.

Colab co-ordinator Chris Johnstone said the idea was to showcase some of the things happening in Te Puke relating to food resilience and food security.

“The Flavours of Plenty events were targeted to adults, so we thought we would do something different and target tamariki, because it’s them who we think we need to educate about food security.”

People from the kai resilience group will be on hand to support the trail that will begin with a Comvita-hosted event at Harvest Church.

Hands-on

With hands-on, practical demonstrations, beekeeper Noelani Waters will explore the magic of bees and what makes these pollinators so important, how pollination works, what it’s like inside a beehive and how people can help bees survive.

Aimed at children from age 5 to 12, it is possible to register just for this portion of the trail.

There will also be seed sharing by people from the Garden to Table initiative and information on Garden to Table’s work in schools.

From there, the trail takes in Te Puke Community Garden then heads to Giggles Te Puke Early Learning Centre.

Maara kai

For the past three years, the centre has developed a maara kai (food garden) that includes vegetable beds with a wide range of plants and a kiwifruit vine, providing an outdoor classroom for children at the early learning centre.

Keeping the vegetable gardens at Giggles Early Learning centre watered with centre owner Shona Ua-Marsh. Photo / Stuart Whitaker

Children learn about sustainable practices for growing, harvesting and cooking. The garden is a resource not just for the children and teachers at the centre, but for the whole community and is a venue for workshops and the source of fresh fruit and vegetables that is shared with whānau and through various pataka kai with the community.

Children on the trail will be able to try tasty treats, plant vegetables, create seed balls to take home and learn about edible wild weeds from Linda-Mary Barrett. Centre owner Shona Ua-Marsh said being involved in the kai trail was just part of Giggles sharing what they do to promote kai resilience with the wider community.

Since the initiative began she said there had been a big growth in families with children at the centre growing their own produce.

Culture of sharing

Many bring their excess fruit and veg to the centre’s pataka kai and other excess produce is used to make chutneys and preserves.

“Children are learning the culture of sharing and of maanakitanga and whakawhenua tanga, of sharing, community spirit and kindness,” said Ua-Marsh.

Tamariki at Giggles early Learning centre practicing making seed balls. Photo / Stuart Whitaker

After the visit to Giggles, those on the trail will head to their final destination, The Daily Café, where there will be a pizza party with pizza made using some of the fresh produce collected along the way and a chance to learn more about food forests with Kris Edgington.

For more information, check out the Flavours of Plenty website.