There continues to be strong advocates for food sovereignty in the Waitaha community who push for improved systems that better meet the needs of our communities and have less impact on the environment.

Toha Kai is a non-profit business run by Roimata Commons Trust and has been running for just over 12 months. During this time, they have delivered over 2000 boxes of locally produced, organic, healthy kai to whānau in the East. This kai is sold at the most affordable price they can manage, whilst still maintaining medium-long term viability. It is being developed as the next step for the food system - a food system that is localised and hapori & hauora focused.

“Toha Kai strongly believes that kai that is grown with the health of Papatūānuku at heart, is kai that safeguards our hauora and restores our wairua,” says Michael Reynolds.

To continue their journey in impacting the food system, Toha Kai is developing a pedal-powered delivery system to deliver boxes of locally sourced produce around Ōtautahi, called Pedal Powered Produce, supported by funding from Healthy Families Ōtautahi.

This is being done through the purchasing of a cargo e-trike and setting up a system for a food delivery service for whānau in the East.

The idea is that once the booking system has been set up, the delivery system will be operational and can be booked out creating an income source.

“I guess a lot of these thoughts came through during Covid-19 – there was already data and studies being run over in Europe, they found that over 50% of the packages that were being delivered by courier vans around England could be delivered by e-trike. This got me thinking, that if it’s doable in London, then it’s doable in a city like Christchurch, where it’s nice and flat and the climate is good for cycling in the city. So, we’ve anchored that research a little bit further by having a group of students looking at the locations we are delivering at currently, which we are using a van for, and then looking at how we can use an e-trike efficiently.

“The aim is to create a sustainable and eco-friendly delivery service that doesn’t rely on cars, creates a model for CO2 emission free delivery for the kai boxes and continues to keep food affordable and accessible to communities in the East,” adds Reynolds.

Long term, the relationship between Toha Kai and Pedal Powered Produce will contribute countless energy savings to the wider earth ecological system.

Toha Kai is also working with Action Bicycle Club to form a cargo bicycle library - so that the cargo bikes that get funded are available for use through a membership scheme.

“Ken and Charlotte (owners of Action Bicycle) are keen to set up a community cargo bike library – so that the community can hire it on weekends and during the week – an opportunity to use this type of equipment and move away from fossil fuel,” says Reynolds.

Toha Kai is currently in discussions with Simon Kingham at University of Canterbury to link up a research project for undergraduate or postgraduate students to measure the impacts of this project. It is important to us that this is captured and able to be communicated in a way to obtain further.

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Article added: Thursday 17 November 2022