P2P growers hui: Matai Aranui Marae, Whirinaki

August 13, 2020

A lot has happened since the last hui - another lockdown causing a disruption. We met at Matai Aranui Marae and wish to acknowledge and thank Paula and her community for their generosity in hosting us. Outcomes:

1. Updates. The group was interested that on more cross-community interaction to garner stronger community buy in. It was noted that Pā to Plate – through its parent trust, E Māra E Ltd, now has a bank account – this can be used for grant applications if required.

2. Pā to Plate marketing outreach. P2P wants to focus on good kai for our own local marae communities in the first instance. Pā to Plate should not overlook these in its marketing drive. Festivals, markets and events could be used to reach out to the local market which was in need of a solid supply chain of nutritious kai. Growers were keen to attend more farmer’s markets. They also wanted to be involved in on-line sales, particularly gift baskets.

3. Structures. E Māra E Trust Ltd had been established as an umbrella Trust providing strategic direction for Pā to Plate. It was set up as a charitable trust to give back to our communities. P2P may explore a co-operative type model in the future.

4. Processed Kai. The hui emphasized the need to process as much kai as possible. We also discussed processing kai using marae kitchens (e.g. kai for the market, marae and for home). Pā to Plate had applied to the MSD Food Secure Communities (FSC) Implementation Fund to support wananga on processed food. If successful we would want to involve all of the Pā to Plate communities.

5. Summer 2021/22. All agreed that we need to plan for the forthcoming summer season starting now. A crop schedule was circulated that we would like all growers to use and update every two weeks, so we understood what is coming down the pipeline. This could be kept and updated so that we can marketing in advance and understand our supply chains better (i.e. crops ready for harvesting, identify crops for processing).

6. Seeds. The importance of maintaining a seed bank. Pā to Plate was ordering some seeds for growers. We would also share seeds at our next hui. Sharing seeds was seen as a way to maintain marae communities food security and also to have healthy food stocks.

7. Equipment. The hui discussed equipment sharing (ploughs, rotary hoes etc) and equipment brokerage.