Wai-Ora

26/07/2026

Our Ecological Contracting teams are leaders in environmental restoration planting tens of thousands of native plants each season while also restoring habitat, identifying and eradicating noxious w**ds, clearing waterways of willows and maintaining large regenerative nature reserves throughout Canterbury. They also come across some amazing creatures while out there caring for the environment.

19/07/2026

🙏 A huge THANK YOU to Continental Packaging! 🙏

We are so grateful to the team at Continental Packaging for their generous donation of stand-up zipper pouches to our foodbank. 💚

These pouches have been an absolute game-changer for us! They've allowed us to repackage so many essential items — powders, salt, sugar, glaze, herbs and seeds — into tidy, resealable portions that are then shared out to our whānau through our Kai Boxes.

It's support like this that helps us get quality kai into the hands of those who need it most. Every pouch makes a real difference in our community. 🌱
Ngā mihi nui ki a koutou, Continental Packaging — thank you for standing alongside us and helping us care for our people. You're helping us nourish whānau, one Kai Box at a time. 💛

09/07/2026

06/07/2026

Some people give quietly, without being asked, simply because their heart won't let them do otherwise.

Lisa Mead is one of those people.

Earlier this year we shared that, with businesses doing it tough, we decided not to reach out to our always faithful and generous Kai Champions the way we normally would.

However thats when Lisa — director and owner of Social Currency made a substantial deposit into our account for the purchase of food for our whanau which will support kai for months and will make a real difference to our kai boxes and, more importantly, to the whānau who receive them.

We've celebrated Lisa before, and every word still stands.

She is a wahine of deep faith and fierce compassion, a business leader who quietly carries so many organisations, and someone with an unshakeable heart for making sure children and families don't go without the basics of life.

In a year when it would have been easy to hold back, Lisa leaned in.

That is simply who she is.

Lisa, from all of us at Wai-Ora and from everyone your generosity reaches — thank you. We so appreciate you.

03/07/2026

Kia ora koutou,

As of today all our free pots have been given away.

We will post again when we have more.

Have a wonderful weekend.

02/07/2026

Kia ora to all our plant loving followers.

We have a large quantity of excess 90mm x 90mm jewel pots to give away (FREE).

As part of our environmental policy we are looking to increase our recycling and second use programmes, so decided to place these pots at the road for anybody to help themselves.

We have listed these for free on Market Place and 1 bin went this morning within a hour but we have several bins left with more coming each week.

Your welcome to take as many or few as you like and if you would like a large quantity we can load a fladge (large sack) of them directly onto a trailer or truck with our forklift.

Any nurseries that can make use of them are welcome to contact me directly on [email protected] so we can ensure we have large quantities, and a forklift operator available to load for you.

We also stock and sell the grids which hold these pots and allow 20 plants to be carried securely in each hand when moving them.

01/07/2026

Enjoyed an early morning breakfast for our Ecological Contracting and Nursery team on this beautiful morning.

22/06/2026

Even on a freezing cold, icy morning here in Otautahi, if you look close enough there is beauty in our world.

Have an amazing week whanau.

14/06/2026

A heartfelt thank you to our community 🙏

For the past two years, our Kai Box Champions have helped us support hundreds of whānau by sponsoring a month's worth of pantry items at a time. It's made a real difference to so many families across our community.

But the truth is, it was only ever a small pool of champions we kept returning to for support. With the challenging business environment over the past 12 months, we didn't feel right continuing to lean on these same generous individuals and businesses. So, this year we made the call not to run our Kai Box Champion programme.

And yet, week after week, the generosity of our community continues to amaze us.
This week we want to acknowledge Shane and Andrea from Sheffield Crescent Auto Centre 2014 Ltd who have once again serviced our foodbank van free of charge. Their generosity means the money we would have spent on servicing goes straight back into kai for our Kai Box recipients. We're so grateful, you two.

We also want to mihi to Kate Coulter and the students and wider community of Christian School, who last week ran a can drive and collected hundreds of cans of food, all donated to our Kai Boxes. Hillview holds a special place for our whānau — it's where Ricky and Cindy's Tamariki attended when they were young. Our oldest boy Todd headed back on Friday to pick up the cans, say a big mihi to Kate and the kids, and even ran into a few of his old teachers along the way.

It's especially pleasing to have Todd and his wife Hailey featured in these photos.
To everyone who continues to give — whether it's your time, your skills, or kai off the shelf — ngā mihi nui ki a koutou.

You are the reason this mahi keeps going. ❤️

And remember ...

"Nāku te rourou, nāu te rourou, ka ora ai te iwi" - "With my food basket and your food basket, the people will thrive."