Establishing Kaitiakitanga

Our sustainability programme establishes kaitiakitanga - environmental guardians.

Establishing kaitiakitanga – environmental guardians.
The sustainability program at Eden Cottage is continually growing. At the moment, we have established a worm farm, recycling centre and flower gardens. The sustainability program establishes responsibility for children over the environment, leading them to becoming kaitiakitanga (environmental guardians). Children’s roles in this is recycling their papers and plastics after kai (food) time. Monitoring the worm farm, feeding the worms and adding bedding. Watering and weeding the flower beds and planting new flowers when needed.

Growing a healthy future

Our vision for the future is to establish a vegetable garden, in which we can care for and harvest for our whanau/families and grow some fruit trees to support our baking activities.

Example of sustainability:

After lunch time the children sorted through the containers of scrap food to separate out food the worms couldn’t eat (citric fruits and bread). Once all the food was sorted they cut it into smaller pieces and placed it into a single bucket. Checking the worm farm, children observed how much food was still being consumed and added more when needed. Keeping aside any remaining worm food for next time.