No vegging out... Queenstown Community Gardens digs deep to feed the hungry
A grant funding boost has enabled volunteer gardeners at Queenstown’s blossoming Harvest Community Gardens to plan a Community Food Pantry, from which people can come and help themselves to whatever fresh produce they need.
President Paula Squire-Thomas says with so much surplus grown by plot-holders in the flush community gardens, in Gorge Road, they wanted to ensure the fresh vegetables, herbs and seasonal fruit all got into the community to be enjoyed.
Thanks to grants totalling $7000 this year and last year from Sky City Community Trust, they’re building raised beds and a tunnel house which is being covered with plastic at a working bee soon. Volunteers will grow a wide range of vegetables in there specifically for the pantry, also being built this season.
“We already give a lot of surplus produce to Baskets of Blessing, Happiness House and Abbeyfield, but we can now grow much more and also grow enough for people who want to come and take what they need,” Squire-Thomas says.
They will also be propagating vegetable and herb seedlings in the tunnel house and people can come and take free punnets of these to encourage them to grow their own veggies at home.
There’s always a waiting list to take plots in the gardens and that usually grows at this time of year, so Squire-Thomas says they’re hoping to reallocate a few plots after some people left town over winter.
Sixty plot-holders now grow produce in the gardens, and between them they feed about 100 people in various local households. “We’ve had a marked increase in young people flatting and young families taking space to grow their own produce amid soaring fresh vegetable prices.”
The pantry will offer all kinds of leafy greens like kale, rocket and silver beet, broccoli, cauliflower, zucchinis, yams, potatoes herbs, even saffron, garlic and onions grown by past president Megan Palmer. Fruit from the gardens now established stone fruit trees will also be on offer in season. Squire-Thomas and Palmer already make preserves from the garden’s surplus rhubarb and fruit, which is donated to local organisations.
“We always all have more produce than we can handle so it will be great to get it out there into the community,” Squire-Thomas says.
Security cameras have been installed and it will be an honesty, take what you need system. A QR code is being installed for those able to make a voluntary donation.
The pantry will likely be stocked each morning and emptied each night, and open seven days a week, providing there’s plenty of surplus produce.
In a big boost to their voluntary operations the community gardens has received more than $26,000 in grant funding during the past two years, including a $5000 Queenstown Lakes District Council operations grant, which has made “a massive difference”, Squire-Thomas says. It’s also enabled completion of the children’s playground. This year a $14,000 council grant will enable a secure water supply and other operations, including payment for a lawn mower.
“A council waste minimisation grant also provided us with free bins and paid for a Dr Compost workshop.” There are also free Bokashi bins on site.
Gardens co-founder back in 2008 and local environmentalist Michael Sly has been a huge help providing 100kgs of coffee grounds delivered each week, which he collects from local cafés and composts.
Squire-Thomas says that while the plots are all in high demand and taken for now, they’d love help from any volunteers who just want to get amongst it and garden. “We will definitely need helpers to maintain our new Sky City Tunnel Gardens.”
The group is now on the look-out for builders to help erect the Food Pantry shed.
See: harvestgardens.nz
