COMMUNITY NOTES

Why are our supermarket shelves so bare? Wao Aotearoa launches Community Food Resilience Survey

by Georgia Merton

What would you do if all the bread ran out? Or all the fruit? Have you thought about it? It seems an odd question, when we’ve got everything we desire right at our fingertips. Frozen berries from eastern Europe, bananas from the Philippines, coffee from Central America. It seems almost too good to be true, and that’s because it is.

You may have noticed our supermarket shelves looking awfully bare in places. And this seems to be becoming commonplace. So, what can we do about it? As food resilience and food systems sustainability expert Julia Blackford says, our current food system is in a pretty vulnerable state. Blackford explains that food resilience is basically the ability to continue to feed ourselves in the face of disruptive shocks or chronic stresses that our system might face. And right now, she says we’re at the worst possible point.

“In a really short space of time, we’ve totally lost our individual responsibility and ability to feed ourselves,” Blackford explains. “It’s created a really dangerous and non-resilient system.” The good news is, the soil beneath our feet can be fertile, and there’s plenty we can do with it. But we need everybody’s help. The first step is to find out where we are at, as a community, and exactly what holes we have in our food system. To that end, Wao has launched the Community Food Resilience Survey of the Queenstown Lakes District, designed by the wider Wao Aotearoa network and funded by the QLDC. You can find it at wao.co.nz, as well as at your table in local cafes and restaurants. The information that gathered will identify our strengths and weaknesses as a district, and help to design a collective vision for our community. Your voice is essential.

If we take action now, building a vibrant, low-emission local food system is well within our reach. After all, as Blackford explains, where we find ourselves is a relatively new situation. “Even 75 years ago in Queenstown, we would have been able to source most of our food within a 50 kilometre radius,” she says. Right now, the food we eat here in the Southern Lakes is mostly dependent on a fragile global supply chain. Research is showing that citizen and community action, empowered by knowledge, has a huge impact in preventing ecological breakdown. Bringing our food production closer to home allows us to be more self-sufficient, and this sufficiency creates security. Community gardens and other projects offer up volunteer and work opportunities. Local groups are increasing their capabilities to process community food waste, while other organisations are focussing on the food which really shouldn’t be thrown out in the first place. KiwiHarvest Queenstown, for example, diverts food which was destined for the landfill from donors like supermarkets, and donates it to community organisations. Food for Love, takes this food and creates home-cooked meals, delivering them to those in need.

So our food waste champions are working hard, but we need more widespread action to transform our local food system. And that begins with you, our survey, and getting a lay of the land. It’s about taking an honest, collective consideration about where we are at, where we are going, and what we want our future to look like. With a bit of forethought, hopefully that’s one where we never run out of bread, fruit or eggs, and one where we can harvest most of what we need from our backyard. You can complete the survey here.

To take the survey simply scan the QR code or go to https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/6SV8SXT

A space for cultivating textile sustainability and a creative community in Queenstown

and Clothing Design and work experience in an apparel manufacturing company, Nina has connected consumers, designers and makers through sewing workshops that encourage the public to repair, upcycle and sew textile goods.

Acknowledging that sewing is a dying life skill that used to be passed down through generations, T I K K I has provided a space for people to continue that tradition. Last year for example, T I K K I ran children’s after school sewing programs, adult group lessons from sewing basics to advanced level, pattern making, homemade wardrobe workshops and private lessons. Nina also organised a community dye vat for stained or dull clothes to save them from landfill and a clothing swap for pre-loved items.

T I K K I Studio is a sewing studio based in Lower Shotover that runs workshops and sewing lessons with sustainability at its heart. It has recently expanded into a co-working space for anyone needing to hot desk. This is especially great for creative entrepreneurs, hobby sewists and students as T I K K I provides access to a creative space with a range of industrial machines and tools that most wouldn’t ordinarily have access to. The studio is immersed in nature, surrounded by floral gardens and situated next to the Shotover River. The perfect spot to cultivate creativity with a peacefulness you won’t tend to find in town.

Nina Chen started T I K K I Studio in an effort to promote sustainability in the consumption of textile goods. Many of our everyday textile goods are mass produced at low cost and as a result they are low quality, ending up in landfill soon thereafter. With her Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Fashion

Every month T I K K I invites the community to join in for our favourite “Sip and Sew” sessions as a good opportunity to drop in and learn from the collective minds that attend, and have some fun!

Nina and the T I K K I Team have managed to provide a valuable space for creativity, connection and education. Now thay are able to share this creative space with fellow hobby sewists, remote workers and entrepreneurs through our membership. Our goal is to utilise the space to its full potential and continue to grow our services to the crafting and creative community with lots more exciting workshops and events in the near future.

The T I K K I Studio can be found at 108 Spence Road, Lower Shotover and contact details are 027 220 9547 | hello.tikkistudio@gmail.com | www.tikkistudio.com