Grow On Katikati Welcomes You
Fresh Food for All, From Seed to Table
About us
Grow On Katikati is a commUNITY project focussed on connecting and empowering locals to grow their own food resilience, one backyard at a time. We share seeds, seedlings and skills to promote success. We host regular events and workshops and welcome anyone who is keen to grow their own “backyard supermarket”. We support our commUNITY on their growing journey, in any way we can, to ensure that they are successful in growing their own food.
Meet our coordinators
Jizzy
Coordinator
Jizzy has been growing her own kai for many decades and loves to share hints, tips and ideas with others. She is either growing, harvesting, preparing or preserving kai. As a kindergarten teacher in her past life, she reckons if she’s able to teach three-year-olds how to sow seeds successfully, she can certainly teach any adult.
Jess
Admin Support
Hi I’m Jess. I am a mother of two young children so I understand the needs of young families. I moved to Katikati at the end of 2020 from the Hawke's Bay and love living here. I have a passion for all things nature and aspire to live a sustainable, self-reliant life while supporting others in the community to do the same. I am a trained Early Childhood Teacher and was a stay at home mum before joining Grow On Katikati as Admin Support in April 2022. I have learned so much from joining this commUNITY and love what we do!
The Shed
We welcome everyone (members and casual visitors) to the Grow On Katikati Shed!
The Shed is a hive of activity where locals meet to increase commUNITY connectivity by sharing seeds and seedlings, and running workshops to empower people to grow their own food resilience, one backyard at a time.
Browse the seedlings on offer, share your successes (or frustrations!) with growing, and leave with a full basket and heart.
Seedlings are free to paid members, and available for koha/donation for casual visitors.
The GOK Shed is located beside Katikati Community Centre, 45 Beach Road and is open every Saturday from 9.30am to 10.30am during the cooler months, and to 11am during summer.
We also host a Crops Swap Food Fiesta every first Saturday of the month, where we invite locals to come and share their excess crops with one another.
Grow On Katikati acknowledges Katikati Community Centre for allowing us to site The Shed rent-free on their grounds.
Some Grow On Katikati initiatives
Meet our Steering Group
Our Steering Group meets every second month to discuss any issues on hand, make policies, and inform our coordinators on the way forward.
I qualified BCom from Auckland University. My working life was contracting for corporates and SOE's. Concurrently I have trained and taught Taiji for Inner Evolution for over 35 years.
I followed my father's example and have maintained a vegetable garden all my life. Food resilience and sustainability are important for personal health.
Wayne Duncan
Chairperson & Accountant
Mike lives on a quarter acre with Jizzy and some of his tasks include compost making, worm farming and tree pruning. He enjoys being involved with the community group and his background includes having worked for Ceres Organics for 15 years as their very first rep tasked with getting organics into supermarkets.
Mike's love of book keeping saw him put his hand up to keep the day to day financials for GOK. He works closely with Wayne Duncan, who oversees the accounts every month. He enjoys growing and eating organic food, boogie boarding, swimming and studies Eastern spiritual philosophy.
Mike Green
Treasurer
Having lived most of my life in Wellington, we moved to Katikati for a change of lifestyle nearly two years ago. I love our new town with all its community groups and so happy to have found Grow On Katikati. Feel privileged to be part of the team enabling food sustainability for more people.
My love for gardening started at 15, when I started selling veggies to neighbours and made enough money to buy a glasshouse - so necessary in windy Wellington. I work full-time as an ICT Service Manager (remotely) and outside of work I spend my time in the garden, at KatiFit Gym, walking our 2 dogs, studying Horticulture with Open Polytechnic and working/enjoying our Avocado Orchard.
Michele Ricou
Secretary
I feel it is super important for food sovereignty projects to stay alive in these times and educate and empower families to not give up, but create their own home pharmacy and produce healthy food to save on household costs.
It is absolutely vital and so I do my small part to support where I can.
Marie Freeman
Marketing
I love being of service to my community. With a background in natural health and nutrition, farming and community development, supporting a food resilience project like Grow On is a natural fit for me.
I believe one of the most important skills for modern families is being able to grow fresh fruit and veggies, both to take pressure off the budget and increase nutrition for the whole family, therefore Grow On is one of the most important community groups in Katikati in my opinion.
Jenny Hobbs
Advisor
The maara/garden nourishes all aspects of my family's hauora/wellbeing. My young boys are active in the garden from seed to table. It is a place of learning, connection, nourishment, tradition and inspiration for us.
My intention in joining the Steering Group is to support Grow On in sharing these skills and knowledge with our youth and future generations.
Kelli Hutchison
Advisor
Huge thanks to our
Grow On Katikati supporters!
Our Funders
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Our Sponsors
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