Me mahi tahi tatou mo te oranga o te katoa (We should work together for the wellbeing of everyone.) 

A new fruit orchard in South Invercargill is helping cultivate a sense of community and will eventually sustain local families with healthy kai. 

The McQuarrie St Orchard is one of several gardens forming part of the Healthy Families Invercargill Murihiku Maara initiative. 

Murihiku Maara aims to develop a sustainable model for edible community gardens in Invercargill, trialing different approaches to support families to grow and eat more healthy kai. 

A range of fruit trees and berries have been planted at the McQuarrie St site, which is made up of a large, empty green space, adjacent to a playground and walking track. Community feedback was that the space beside the playground was not heavily used. 

Healthy Families Invercargill lead systems innovator Stella O’Connor said community insights showed people wanted access to healthy kai, but also wanted to connect as a community and learn more about how to grow their own food. 

“This orchard is a perfect example of how public green spaces can be used in a different way to encourage community connection, and build initiatives that will benefit community wellbeing.” 

We are also using this initiative to trial the process around creating a memorandum of understanding with councils to make it easier for community organisations to partner with them to co-manage public spaces. 

“We hope this will result in these spaces being able to be more widely used by the community, and ultimately, as an opportunity for greater access to edible plantings and subsequently, healthy kai.” 

Community members who attended a recent working bee at the McQuarrie St orchard said the benefits of the orchard extended to more than the provision of food. 

“For our family what is important is that it is not just for us now, it’s for our daughter in the future as well. She can come back in 20 years and be like ‘I was part of that’. It’s also about learning how to plant and look after things like our own food, and also to feed our community. Having our daughter involved in that and just seeing how many people it can reach has been really important.” 

Connecting as a community and realising the role community plays in hauora (wellbeing) was also an important element of the orchard, she said. 

“In so many things you can be so disconnected...in this you actually come and see people and interact with people. You’re part of the community, you get out there and you help your community. And you don’t do it for thanks, you do it because it’s the right thing to do.” 

The sentiment was echoed by another community member who said the orchard was giving her an opportunity to not only spend more time with her young daughter, but also providing her with valuable life skills. 

“It’s great to spend time with her and show her how to be part of a community and plant food, where it comes from. And it will be here for a long time to come hopefully.” 

Article added: Monday 27 March 2023