There's a garden revolution happening in Mount Maunganui.
Gone are the days of relying on grandad for a free bag of tomatoes or a feed of feijoas.
Now it's the kids that are doing the hard graft in the garden, thanks in no small part to people like Heidi Hughes.
Heidi and a few other members of a local gardening club have set up an organisation called PiPS, to encourage gardening in the schools that lie in the catchment of Mount Maunganui College.
The programme has grown faster than a bean sprout, with gardens set up in seven of the eight schools in the area and an eighth due next year.
Heidi says growing your own food is more than just a hobby – it is a form of insurance against things like economic crisis or drought.
She says 'local food resilience” revolves around people growing their own produce and sharing it with others in the community who are doing the same thing.
People don't have to grow everything in their backyards, but if they do one or two things well, they can share the spoils with others.
'I grow spinach and you grow really good tomatoes, then we shoot them over the fence at each other,” she says.
The college has a horticulture course, so bringing enthusiasm for gardening into the primary schools and intermediate makes a lot of sense.
'It is so much fun,” says Heidi. 'They can see a cucumber grow all the way through. There is so much learning to be done around how to care for something, how to watch something grow from seed, how to feed it and look after it. Then you can turn around and eat it.”
The enthusiasm at the primary schools is spilling over into Mount Maunganui Intermediate. This was evident when one of the two Pips' coordinators sent out a call for people to get involved.
'A call out for garden club saw 40 kids turn up on the first day.”
Passionate women
Heidi is one of two guest speakers at the Women Environment Network BOP session on Saturday.
Now in its second year, WENBOP was formed by Janie Stevenson and Tania Bramley to bring together like-minded women who are passionate about the environment, conservation and sustainability.
Their aim is to provide opportunities for attendees to network, share ideas and see what more can be done together.
The event will focus on inspiring projects and passions shared by extraordinary local women, including Heidi and Dr Sandra Velarde from Rotorua.
Sandra is celebrating the anniversary of her return from Antarctica as part of the largest all-women expedition. This ground-breaking leadership initiative aims to heighten the influence and impact of women in making decisions that shape our planet.