Beyond Community Gardens
Our #EatNZKaitaki Claudia Silva takes us through her current Masters project which looks at "How Connected Interstices of Food Commons Can Help Build More Resilient Neighbourhoods".
I am currently undertaking a Master of Urban Resilience and Renewal at the University of Canterbury, in Ōtautahi Christchurch. This Masters project is special because our theses are conducted alongside a community partnership where we are aiming to provide research for in-situ contexts. My thesis seeks to understand how connected interstices of food commons can help build more resilient neighbourhoods. While Aotearoa New Zealand is considered a country abundant in food production, more than one in five children experience severe to moderate food insecurity in Aotearoa. These are predominantly people in lower socio-economic (LCE) areas. In terms of specific locations, there are higher rates of food insecurity for the population of Ōtautahi which has been exacerbated by both the 2011 earthquakes and the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdowns.
The neglect of urban food resilience in planning also leads to LCE’s often being exacerbated by food swamps and deserts. This negatively impacts food access, equality, and resilience. Food deserts are places where fresh, healthy, and affordable food choices are limited. Food swamps are areas where access to healthy and fresh foods are “swamped out” by takeaway and fast-food shops and/or there is a general glut of unhealthy and energy-dense food within the neighbourhood. These two metaphors are oft to co-exist in the same low socio-economic areas. They are also often “fixed” in large-scale and highly visible ways such as supermarkets. But supermarkets merely act as a proxy and reduce the root problems of economic, political, and socio-economic context to mere availability of food which can manifest as inadequate public transport, low wages and/or ethic segregation. This kind of solution also neglects to engage with the embodied class and racial identities of its residents.
In various acts to provide counteractive and alternative solutions to these large-scale ones, food commons and other alternative food networks tend to evolve in these areas such as community gardens. The community partner I am working alongside for this thesis is the Smith Street Community Gardens. The garden manager is Georgina Stanley, who has a diverse and complex background in both anthropology and Māori/Pasifika agriculture. When she is not busy in the gardens, and even when she is busy there, she is working to build the Fruit Loop. However, as much as the work done by those working in community gardens, and the aid the food provides for people cannot be underestimated or underappreciated, the gardens are asked to do too much. They relentlessly take on the responsibilities that have been passed off or neglected by the state.
The Fruit Loop idea originated with Zane Crofts (there’s a great article about him here), a member of the Smith Street Board and extreme backyard community gardener who was concerned about the effects of climate change on biodiversity, mental health, poverty, and community breakdown. He was also inspired by the Gangster Gardner. Serendipitously, around the same time, the community board chairperson posed the question to the community, “How do we make our communities more connected to safer and active transport?”. This question was raised due to the eastern suburbs being disconnected by large motorways that take the more affluent suburbs to the central city and bypass Smith Street. Thus, the Fruit Loop was born. The Loop is a multi-nodal, food sharing commons that links different interstices, backyards, parks, and gardens to one another through walkways and bike paths, homes, parks, schools, and community gardens in the Eastern suburbs of Ōtautahi. The idea and project are founded upon food sharing and active transports on streets, in neighbourhoods, and aims to build manaaki (care, respect) into the urban landscape. Ultimately, it is about building an inquisitive, exploratory, and resilient urban environment that addresses inclusive spatial planning, food access and distribution.
With my research for this thesis, I am hoping to help Georgina and the Edible Streets Board understand what the needs and requirements are of the Bromley community and how the Fruit Loop can aid in their community resilience and food security. Bromley is the case study area as it is an area currently lacking in the most green-space and community infrastructure in the Eastern suburbs. The results will be analysed via the Mauri Ora Compass framework. This framework is a holistic application for urban planning that contextualises indigenous Māori and more-than-human values, which is a necessary path forward both environmentally and socially as the people of Aotearoa.
Stayed tuned!
To see more from Claudia follow her adeventures on IG @_claudiasilva