Kai Waiheke is an independent people-led food movement which aims to bring together actors from across the foodscape and encourage collective actions to create a more resilient food system on Waiheke.
Kai Waiheke formed in 2020 in response to the growing need to take collective action to feed and support community during the onset of Covid-19. Kai Waiheke’s vision emerged from the community-centred food resilience hui it held at Piritahi Marae in November 2020.
Acknowledging the challenges of the rising costs of food and living, a lack of affordable locally grown food, environmental barriers to growing food locally, added costs through transport and freight as well as increased vulnerability to natural disasters due to our remote location, Kai Waiheke sees the potential for a thriving, resilient food system on Waiheke.
Kai Waiheke believes in the collective know-how and can do of the talented people working across all aspects of the Waiheke food system. Food production, distribution, processing, retailing, consumption, and rescue all play a part.
Food Charter
The need for a unified values-based food charter emerged from the November 2020 Food Resilience Hui.
The Kai Waiheke Food Charter was drafted in 2022 through a series of workshops that enabled community contributions around a vision for a sustainable local food system.
The Charter is intended to be te Taki o Autahi | Maahutona (Southern Cross), Waiheke's guiding document to achieve change in our food system for the health of our people, land and seas.
Kai Waiheke encourages everyone – households, businesses and community organisations – to learn more about the collective vision we have for Waiheke's food system by reading the Charter.
Make a commitment: become a signatory of the Charter today.
Seasonal Hui
As a way of bringing people together and encouraging in-person connection, Kai Waiheke holds regular seasonal hui. Representatives of different food system groups and initiatives are invited to voice their challenges and successes, share progress on projects and stories of local activities.
The purpose of these hui is also to look forward and share next steps in Waiheke's collective food resilience journey, foster collaborative action, and give space for community-led improvements to the Waiheke food system.
Stay up-to-date about the next hui via HGWT’s socials or by signing up to the Kai Waiheke pānui
food brigade
The Waiheke Food Brigade is being established by Kai Waiheke so that the island has an active network of citizens that are ready to respond in times of emergency or disaster to ensure that people are fed and food is available and distributed to those in need of it.
In practice, the first step of this is completing the database of people, activities, initiatives, and food resources on the island, and making sure this is updated. If you would like to help with this work, or believe that you should be on the Food Brigade database, please get in touch with us.
Kai Waiheke intends to work closely with the Local Board and make the Food Brigade as open as possible to ensure that it supports any existing initiatives, which would then come together to form a community action plan around food access and distribution in case of an emergency.
stay connected
Sign up to the Kai Waiheke pānui to hear about ways to get involved in improving Waiheke’s food resilience. Read about volunteering, learning and connection opportunities each month.
Currently umbrellad by HGWT, Kai Waiheke was first established as a Waiheke Resources Trust (WRT) project. It has been funded by the MSD Food Secure Communities grant and the Waiheke Local Board. The November 2020 hui that launched Kai Waiheke's mahi was co-hosted by WRT and Piritahi Marae, and facilitated by Spira.
We want to thank all these contributors for their support.