People Eat Fresh (for free!)

So, I’m looking for a little help please to get this project off the ground. (I'm the Deputy Mayor of the Far North, noting this is NOT a council project).

A few months back I decided I needed to do some doing and support a couple of projects personally (ie not council projects). The main drivers were to do something that helps grow community spirit and to achieve something that I can physically see. Thus I put the call out for community ideas to support - I received 94!

Two of the projects chosen involve fruit. The one I am fundraising for is around planting fruit trees/vines in public places. This idea suggested by Chrystal Popata from Kaitaia. Many of us will remember as children being able to pick fruit along the side of the road as we were heading to school. Or in my case, riding over Constitution Hill in Russell, to pick grapes growing wild on the side of the road. It was quite the hike!

The aim of ‘People Eat Fresh’ is to reintroduce this concept in strategic locations across the Far North. The project will see communities/people identify where they might like some trees planted. Secondly, it will be a volunteer effort to get them planted, and thirdly (and quite importantly) we will have people to look after them as they grow and hopefully prosper.

The trees we are looking to plant need to be pretty resilient, so it includes plums (such as Lusia), citrus, berries and feijoas. The aim is to get them in the ground no later than the end of July 2018. (And yes we want to plan even more next year).

I want to thank Plant and Food Research for their support of this project.