All smiles on delivery day: Garden facilitator at No. 37 Community House John MacFadgen with Lorraine Hartigan.
Portable gardens are popping up at some of the Westport temporary houses and they’re putting smiles on residents’ faces.
The Food Security Network, through Love Kawatiri and No.37, is placing portable garden beds for residents to enjoy at the temporary houses in Queen and Stafford streets.
Residents can grow their own veggies in their bins or, if they don’t have such a green thumb, seasonal vegetables can be raised at the community garden at 37 Peel Street, Westport, and the portable bins are swapped in when they’re ready to eat.
Two have been delivered to temporary homes and three more are ready to go.
Stafford Street temporary home resident Lorraine Hartigan is delighted with her new portable garden which came stocked with ready-to-harvest lettuce and silver beet.
One of the things Lorraine missed from her pre-flood home was her garden so she is thrilled with the portable garden that she knows she can also plant with her own choices when it is ready.
“This is just lovely,” says Lorraine. “Now I feel like I am truly building my new ‘happy place’ here at Stafford Street.”
The three homes in Queen Street are part of work to provide temporary accommodation for people displaced by the floods. The Queen Street properties are owned by the Ministry of Business, Employment and Innovation (MBIE) and managed by the Temporary Accommodation Service (TAS). The five houses on Stafford Street were donated by Kāinga Ora and are also managed by TAS.
Healthy, yummy and stress-free gardening for temporary housing residents.