The Waitaki Community Gardens is a social and educational hub for sharing life skills across age, culture and gender. Their aim is to empower all members of the community with skills to grow and cook their own food.

Otago Community Trust was pleased to recently award the Waitaki Community Garden a $5,000 grant which will assist with the development of an additional section of the Waitaki Community Gardens site.

Working closely with the Waitaki District Council, gum trees and fencing have recently been removed, opening up the new site to further development. The groups plan is to implement permaculture principles into the new site design so that the site can enhance both biodiversity and learning opportunities for the public.

"We see our purpose as bringing people of all ages together to share knowledge, empower people, build a resourceful and resilient community and generate real pride in our collective achievements".

With just three staff but a willing body of volunteers, the Waitaki Community Gardens are very enthustic to continue to develop new initiatives post-lockdown to educate and create positive, proactive change in the community through empowering people to grow food. 

Otago Community Trust is very pleased to be supporting this initaitve and looking forward to seeing first hand the new edible gardens and orchard once fully developed that will continue to boost the community’s food resilience.

One aspect of the Waitaki Community Garden that we really admire is its 'Kids Growing' programme. The Waitaki Community Garden actively help local primary schools in North Otago establish their own edible gardens as an outdoor classroom and work closely with teachers to develop curriculum-integrated lesson plans that are easy to deliver and truly fun for everyone.