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Community gardens advocate
Community Gardens and Kids Edible
Gardens (gardens in schools) are springing
up all over Christchurch. Communities that
want to start a garden in their area have a
new support person to help them. Wendy
Kilgariff is the new Community Gardens
Advocate based at the Council’s Civic
Offices in Tuam Street. Wendy has a long history in community
development. She recently returned from
volunteer work in Vanuatu and is a keen
gardener. “I’m really looking forward to
working with the many communities
involved in community gardening. I see
community gardens as spaces that are for
bringing together people from a myriad of
backgrounds and experience. I’m keen to
support groups to create new gardens all
over this beautiful city” Kids edible gardens will also benefit from
Wendy’s presence, especially schools that
want their edible garden open to
community involvement or to use plots at a
community garden as an experiential
learning tool. At present 11 schools throughout
Christchurch are assisted by the Kids Edible
Gardens team at the Organic Garden City
Trust (OGCT). There are many other
schools across the city with gardens. Some
began with the Kids’ Edible Gardens
programme and are now themselves
sustaining their edible garden. Kids’ Edible
Gardens supports school gardening by
providing garden facilitators to play and
learn with the children and ideally, alongside
volunteers from the community. “This kind of experiential education is
sowing seeds of sensitivity and
understanding in children’s awareness of
their natural environment”, says project coordinator
Christopher Reid. “Children are
discovering that their food does not grow in
plastic bags from the supermarket thanks to
more and more gardens growing in schools
and early childhood centres across the city.” The City Council wants to encourage
these links to ensure kids edible gardens
and community gardens continue to
flourish. More information: |