A Vision for Food Resilience: From the Ground Up
At the Vector Group Charitable Trust, we see food resilience as a complete story—a narrative that begins with the land, is nurtured by community, and finds its purpose in providing for our villages. Our founder, Stephen Fawcett, was shaped by his childhood in Papua New Guinea, where he learned firsthand that a healthy community starts with a secure food supply, built on the wisdom of the land and the hard work of its people. Our new website portal, www.kairesilience.food/, is the living embodiment of this narrative, a tool designed to bring these principles to life here in Aotearoa.
The Foundation: Soil, Skills, and Shared Knowledge
The first chapter of our story begins with the soil. True food resilience is rooted in understanding our land—its cycles, its health, and its capacity to provide for us. Our approach combines traditional ecological practices with modern methods, recognizing that a thriving food system starts with a healthy environment. We are actively working in Te Puke and the wider Bay of Plenty to restore our connection to the land and to teach the fundamental skills needed for self-sufficiency, just as generations have done in villages across the Pacific.
This isn’t just about planting seeds; it’s about fostering a culture of food self-reliance through education. We lead workshops on food forest gardening, a method that mimics natural ecosystems to create abundant food. We teach the art of composting to enrich the earth and the skill of plant propagation to multiply our yields. The kairesilience.food website is a digital extension of this educational mission. It’s a place where we share this valuable knowledge, providing a platform for local growers and experts to share their wisdom through a blog and a resource library. You’ll also find a comprehensive set of tools to help you connect and build a more resilient food system together. These include:
- Listings & Profiles: Our directory allows local growers, artisans, and food businesses to create detailed profiles, showcasing their products and practices.
- Events: A centralized calendar for all local food-related activities, from farmers’ markets and gardening workshops to food festivals.
- Community Board: A section for accommodation and job listings, allowing people to post opportunities like seasonal jobs on a local farm or a place to stay in exchange for work.
- Guides & Resources: Our library includes guides on growing specific crops, best practices for pest management, and inspiration from others who are successfully growing their own food.
The Harvest: Connection, Community, and Equity
The next chapter of our story is about the harvest—the act of sharing abundance. For Stephen, food has always been a way to connect with neighbours, support local economies, and build trust within a village. This is where the interactive features of the kairesilience.food portal truly shine.
The Crop Swap and Food Exchange functions are designed to facilitate the free flow of surplus food within a community. Imagine your neighbour has an overabundance of lemons and you have a glut of avocados—our platform makes it easy to arrange a mutually beneficial trade. This reduces food waste, fosters a spirit of generosity, and strengthens social bonds. The multi-vendor marketplace is a critical component for economic resilience. It allows small-scale producers, from backyard gardeners to artisan food creators, to sell their products directly to the public. This cuts out the middlemen, ensuring a fairer price for their hard work and providing consumers with unparalleled access to fresh, local produce you won’t find in a supermarket. This section of our story is about the transition from individual effort to collective abundance and the creation of an equitable food system for everyone.
The Impact: Security, Self-Reliance, and the Future
The final and most critical part of our narrative is the long-term impact on food security and self-reliance. By empowering local growers and creating a robust, interconnected system, we are building a more secure future for our children and generations to come. This means reducing our collective reliance on fragile, long-distance supply chains that are vulnerable to global disruptions. It’s about ensuring that every household has access to healthy, culturally appropriate food, regardless of their economic situation.
The kairesilience.food website serves as the central nervous system for this entire movement. It’s a tool that provides the data, connections, and inspiration needed to make our communities truly resilient. By mapping out our local food systems, we are putting control over our food back where it belongs: in the hands of the people. This is more than a website; it’s a blueprint for a self-sustaining future, where every person has the power to contribute to and benefit from a vibrant, local food economy.
We invite you to join us on this journey and become a part of our shared story.