Mataura community gets together for growth

SONIA GERKEN 624196078

DELICIOUS AND NUTRITIOUS: Mataura community garden co-ordinators Barbara Cunningham and Ross Boyd admire some of the fresh vegetables that have been grown on a once-vacant section in the town.

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A once-empty section in Mataura has been transformed into a bountiful vegetable garden that was feeding the community.

For co-ordinators Barbara Cunningham and Ross Boyd, the Mataura community garden was as much a success story about a community coming together as it was about growing vegetables.

"I'm proud of the people who are working with us. If we didn't have them we couldn't do it," Mrs Cunningham said.

Each Saturday, Mataura residents can visit the garden to get fresh vegetables from the impressive selection. Mrs Cunningham said the produce was free but many people did not want to be a charity case and insisted on paying.

"All I say is give a gold coin donation."

She had the idea of a community garden several years ago because she knew of so many people who did not know how to garden, Mrs Cunningham said. However, it never got out of the ground.

The Mataura Taskforce's revitalisation programme had prompted revival of the idea, she said. "It's mainly to help people struggling; vegetables aren't cheap."

The garden was just for Mataura residents, although there had been a glut of cabbages and cauliflowers, which were donated to the Salvation Army food bank, Mrs Cunningham said.

Younger people were slowly starting to visit the garden and if anyone did not know how to use fresh vegetables, there were people willing to help, she said.

Mataura businesses had supported the venture with goods and services and the section had been made available, for free, by its owner Dave Edwards.

Mataura community board members this week congratulated those behind the project and hoped for Gore District Council funding in next year's budgets.

- © Fairfax NZ News

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