Grow On Katikati is helping connect the community to their own backyards to grow themselves into becoming more food secure.

Emerging after the lockdown in early-2020, two local women Tessa McKenzie and Anne Billing created Grow On Katikati after recognising the community was facing fresh produce shortages and food insecurity.

Share seedlings

'They [Tessa and Anne] got some Kings Seeds…and started sowing the seeds, raising the seedlings and then handed them out to the community and so we kind of went from there,” says coordinator Jizzy Green.

Nestled next to the Katikati Community Centre, Grow On Katikati opens their garden shed every Saturday for their members to share seedlings.

'We have about 84 members that pay $48 a year, so $4 per month,” says Jizzy. 'You could get one punnet of seedlings for that retail but our members can come down and just collect as many seedlings as they need,” says Jizzy.

Lost art

Grow On Katikati holds various workshops from harvesting seeds, raising seedlings, propagating, composting, mushroom foraging and more. 'Our vision is to really empower people to give them the tools to be successful in growing their food,” says Jizzy, who believes that growing food for ourselves is a lost art.

'We now think that feeding ourselves is taking a supermarket trolley and wandering around the aisles for 45 minutes and putting a whole lot of dead, packaged foods in our trolleys,” says Jizzy.

In turn, Jizzy says: 'We also love to think that with people growing their own fresh produce that there's going to be a correlation with health as well”.

Giving people the tools to grow their own food works as a 'hand up” rather than a 'hand out”, says Jizzy. 'Every dollar you don't have to spend purchasing fresh produce, is dollars that stay in your back pocket that can be spent on other things like power bills and gas.”

Grow On Katikati welcomes everyone to gain tips to get growing. On Tuesday, July 19, at 6pm they will have a mid-winter soup social at the Katikati Community Centre for a $10 koha. Bring your pre-chopped vege or herbs from your garden to add to the pot!

Email: [email protected] to save your seat or visit their Facebook page for upcoming events at: https://www.facebook.com/growonkatikati/