Pou Kai

Wai + Kai

 

Wai + Kai sit at the heart of community wellbeing. Healthy water creates healthy food systems, and healthy food systems support strong people and resilient ecosystems. Our Wai & Kai kaupapa brings these two threads together, guided by mana whenua and grounded in the understanding that kai and wai are inseparable.  

 

The programme connects waterway restoration, catchment care, māra kai, and community education, supporting the full cycle from the health of streams and wetlands to to quality, sovereignty and accessibility of kai.

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Why it matters

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When Waikato’s waterways are degraded, the impacts show up in our food systems, our health, and our climate resilience. Strong wai and kai systems mean cleaner water, healthier soils, food security, and protection of cultural practices such as mahinga kai.

Restoring waterways and local food systems also reduces emissions, strengthens ecosystems, and helps communities adapt to floods, droughts, and climate stress.

Restoring kai systems is part of decolonising how we relate to land and food.

 

What you can do

 

• Join planting or clean‑up days along waterways

• Volunteer with a local catchment group

• Grow kai at home or in a community garden

• Support predator and pest control near waterways

• Back hapū‑led plans for water and kai restoration

 

Together, we can restore the strength of our waterways, grow resilient local food systems, and create a future where wai and kai are valued as the taonga they are.

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Kai Motuhake

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Kai Motuhake is about restoring control of food systems to iwi, hapuu, and communities. It is grounded in tino rangatiratanga, maatauranga Maaori, and the collective right to grow, access, and share nutritious kai in ways that honour whakapapa and place.  Kai Motuhake is not charity. It is self-determination, dignity, and long-term resilience.

 

The kaupapa supports māra kai, seed saving, land access, food education, and the restoration of mahinga kai practices, while uplifting mana whenua authority and leadership.

 

Our role as Tangata Tiriti is to support, not lead. Kai Motuhake uplifts mana whenua authority and aspirations, creating pathways for communities to shape their own food futures.

 

Why it matters

 

Food is whakapapa. When kai systems are strong, so are people, whenua, and ecosystems. Kai Motuhake builds food sovereignty, strengthens community resilience, supports biodiversity, and reduces climate emissions through local production.

Kai Motuhake is about the freedom to feed ourselves well, on our own terms.

 

What you can do

 

• Support or join a local māra kai or marae garden

• Grow and share kai in your neighbourhood

• Learn seed saving and soil‑building skills

• Support hapū‑led land and kai projects

• Advocate for policies that enable community food sovereignty

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Together, we can build a Waikato where kai systems are locally governed, culturally grounded, climate-resilient, and shaped by the people who call this place home.

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Harvest Helpers

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 Harvest Helpers collects surplus home‑grown and locally produced kai across the Waikato, preventing food waste and increasing access to fresh, healthy produce. Working with households, orchards, community gardens, marae, and growers, we pick kai that might otherwise go to waste and share it through local food hubs and community groups.

 

Why it matters

 

Each season, tonnes of edible kai are wasted in the Waikato while many whānau struggle to access healthy food. Harvest Helpers reduces waste, strengthens local food resilience, and supports climate action by keeping kai out of landfill.

 

What you can do

 

• Share surplus kai from your garden or fruit trees

• Volunteer for local harvests

• Host a neighbourhood harvest day

• Help transport kai to local hubs

• Connect us with growers who have surplus

Together, we can catch the abundance in our communities and share it with care, respect, and purpose.