There was a great turnout of nineteen people at the first working bee for the Doughnut Hub at Newton Central School on Sunday 19 February.
It was smoothly organised by the Hannah McDonnell-Buwalda, DEANZ’ Doughnut Hub Manager. With the soft opening in October 2022, and the official opening in December at a special school assembly on site, the Hub was ready to move into phase two.
Phase One was the installation of the state-of-the-art Carbon Cycle compost bins. The working bee was all about laying the groundwork for Phase Two – the community gardens.
The people who laid down the garden beds included parents of children attending the school, people from the local community who donated food scraps to the compost bins, as well as the school Principal Bryan Rehutai and the Deputy Principal Josephine McKendrey, the Chair of DEANZ James Watson and the Hannah, Doughnut Hub Manager.
Everyone threw their backs into making the “lasagne garden”: putting down layers of hessian bags, cardboard and woodchips, topped with the first beautiful, rich compost produced by the Doughnut Hubs’s compost bins.
The creation of the garden beds involved shifting the enormous pile of woodchips that Hannah got delivered, taking plastic tape off the cardboard boxes and laying them flat, removing the plastic ties from the hessian bags (you don’t want plastic in the garden) and moving the compost from the compost bins. An enormous amount was able to be achieved in just two hours because so many people put up their hands to be involved.
After all that hard work, the delicious spread provided by Josephine was a welcome reward. But the best part was how much everyone enjoyed the day – the smiles and laughter and camaraderie that comes from doing good together.
For more information go to: https://doughnuteconomicsnz.com/doughnut-hubs\
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