More than 14000 free meals given to Otara community
Members of the Otara community have eaten more than 14000 free meals thanks to the Ōtara Kai Village project.
Residents, food banks, The Ministry of Social Development and Foundation North are backing the initiative which aims to help struggling families.
Swanie Nelson, local Board member and Ōtara Kai Village Founder, said Otara was one of the suburbs the most severely impacted by Covid-19.
"We had the highest wage subsidy requests and the highest requests for the emergency care packages."
The mainly volunteer group works with retailers and manufacturers to support locals impacted by COVID-19 and redistribute food that would otherwise go to waste.
Residents, community groups and students from colleges in the district prepare free meals during the week in a container donated by Panuku by the AT Otara Transit Centre.
A cafe along with a Maori and Pacific boutique are open to entrepreneurs wanting to start their own businesses and to community groups running fundraising ventures.
Share your favourite main crop potato recipe and win a copy of our mag!
Love potatoes? We will give away free copies of the May 2026 issue to readers whose potato recipes are used in our magazine. To be in the running, make sure you email your family's favourite way to enjoy potatoes: mailbox@nzgardener.co.nz, by March 1, 2026.
Poll: 🤖 What skills do you think give a CV the ultimate edge in a robot-filled workplace?
The Reserve Bank has shared some pretty blunt advice: there’s no such thing as a “safe” job anymore 🛟😑
Robots are stepping into repetitive roles in factories, plants and warehouses. AI is taking care of the admin tasks that once filled many mid-level office jobs.
We want to know: As the world evolves, what skills do you think give a CV the ultimate edge in a robot-filled workplace?
Want to read more? The Press has you covered!
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52.8% Human-centred experience and communication
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14.8% Critical thinking
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29.7% Resilience and adaptability
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2.8% Other - I will share below!
Some Choice News!
DOC is rolling out a new tool to help figure out what to tackle first when it comes to protecting our threatened species and the things putting them at risk.
Why does this matter? As Nikki Macdonald from The Post points out, we’re a country with around 4,400 threatened species. With limited time and funding, conservation has always meant making tough calls about what gets attention first.
For the first time, DOC has put real numbers around what it would take to do everything needed to properly safeguard our unique natural environment. The new BioInvest tool shows the scale of the challenge: 310,177 actions across 28,007 sites.
Now that we can see the full picture, it brings the big question into focus: how much do we, as Kiwis, truly value protecting nature — and what are we prepared to invest to make it happen?
We hope this brings a smile!
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