Over the July school holidays, offenders on community work transformed the site of an adventure playground at Gisborne’s Elgin School into a richly soiled vegetable garden.
The offenders, sentenced to community work in the region, dug up the fallow land of the playground and relocated it to the front of the school, then replaced trailer-loads of bark chips with fertile soil. It took 45 community workers three weekends to complete the job.
“It’s an example of community work that makes a positive difference to the community,” says Senior Community Work Supervisor Stephney Grayndler-Hollis. “It’s also a great chance for the offenders to give something back, and they get a real sense of satisfaction from knowing they’re supporting such a worthwhile cause.”
Principal Janet Collier-Poi says the children are now learning to garden, and are seeing firsthand how the earth sustains us. Each child was given three ‘magic potatoes’, which they have planted in their own individual garden plot. The harvest of the magic potatoes is planned for the last week of school – just in time for the kids to give their families a nutritious Christmas present.
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ISSN 1178-8453