Mokoia Primary, 10km south of Hāwera, is a small rural school that aims to foster strong family-like relationships between children, staff, and whānau. In 2021, the staff, pupils, and parents established a community garden as another way to connect the school with its wider community.
“We dug four plots, begged, borrowed and stole cuttings and seeds and got it going. It was really successful, but it just wasn’t enough,” said Evon Willmott-Brads, Principal.
“So, we looked at our goals and realised that it wasn’t just that we wanted to provide food for those families that needed it. We really wanted the kids to have that whole field-to-fork experience and to know how to grow food for themselves when they’ve left home. And we wanted to be able to pick our own fruit for morning tea, and to cook our produce at school.”
To realise those goals, the community garden needed a remake.
Toi Foundation funding of $15k enabled Mokoia Primary to purchase and erect windproof fencing, build a bird-proof cage for their raspberry, tayberry and boysenberry patch, create a mini orchard and build wooden sides around their vegetable plots.
The community garden has now become an integral part of school life, and the whole community benefits from the increased produce and connections.
“We timetable gardening into the programme twice a week, usually first thing after assembly. We always feel happy and ready to learn when we come back into class. Then when we pick our produce, we make up bags and the kids are excited to take them home,” said Evon.
“We use our gardens in lessons when we can, too. For example, after we read The Gruffalo, we picked our apples and rhubarb to make ‘Gruffalo crumble’. And we measured the perimeters and areas of the beds during maths. It’s nice to get out in the fresh air and be learning in a different way, because not everyone learns best at a table.
“Our swimming pool is open over summer, and we encourage people using it to come in and pick food from the garden for themselves.
“We also have a hangi once a year, so we try and grow pumpkin, kumara and potatoes for that. Ideally, we’d love to get to a place where the kids cook their lunch at school once a week, but we’re not quite there yet.
We’re so grateful to the Toi Foundation for giving us the opportunity to create a truly successful garden.”
