19 February
The elderly and those in need will be given a helping hand by prisoners at Northland Region Corrections Facility (NRCF) this winter with the provision of garden grown produce from prisoners.
Prisoners working towards NZQA Horticulture qualifications with Corrections Inmate Employment (CIE) will be providing Kaikohe Aged Care Centre and Kaikohe Food Bank with fresh organic vegetables including tomatoes, corn, pumpkins, and kamokamo.
The Food Bank is already putting the kamokamo to use as its soup base, freezing it, ready for serving out in winter.
The vegetables grown in the CIE garden are totally organic, and are grown from organic seeds which have been cultivated over the summer months by a graduate prisoner from the CIE Horticulture programme.
This year, two 17 week courses will be run for prisoners, who will all work in the garden as part of completing their Level 2 National Certificate in Horticulture through the Trade and Technical Training program run by Northland Polytechnic.
“This year’s courses will continue to build on the success of CIE grown food donations to the Kaikohe community last Christmas,” says CIE Northland Region Area Manager Don Robertson.
“It is really great to see prisoners learn the dynamics of vegetable gardening and putting the theory into practice in the prison.”
“Encouraging prisoners to understand how easy it is to grow vegetables encourages them to grow vegetables for their families on their release and in turn provides a healthy diet, which assists in the prevention of things like diabetes and heart disease,” says Don.
Prison Manager Chris Gisler says that the CIE Horticulture programme has tangible benefits for both the prisoners and the community.
“By providing the opportunity for gardens to be developed inside the wall we achieve two CIE goals - engaging prisoners in worthwhile activities and teaching them skills which could lead to employment on release, and assisting valuable community projects.”
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