The Te Maara Kai O Wirihana is a collaboration between Manurewa High School (MHS) and the Counties Manukau DHB (CMDHB). The project was to develop the land between MHS and the Manukau SuperClinic (MSC) into an education garden, a community garden, a food forest, and a small native nursery. This would improve the food security and the resilience of the Manurewa community. It was designed using Permaculture design principles.
This was, and still is, a high profile project with full coverage on social media, television, and the press.
Other stakeholders included residents, students, local businesses, the local board, the past pupils network, charities, Primary ITO, Gardens for Health, local MP, and others.
The Total area is 0.7 hectares or 1¾ acres. The gardens take up just over ⅔ of the area, the remainder includes a native plant and tree nursery and a food forest growing trees, vines, fruits, herbs, nuts, perennial vegetables, etc.
Vision and Mission
To Improve the food security and the resilience of the Manurewa community through the development of an education garden and community garden on the land between the MHS and the MSC.
Here is the final presentation:
and the final report
and here is the result 6 years later – still going strong
The current manager and the students maintain a reasonably active Instagram presence at https://www.instagram.com/wirihana.maarakai/