275 Times. September 2016.

10
Eating healthy,
staying healthy
By Justine Skilling
Waste Minimisation Facilitator
Talking Rubbish, ME Family Services
Hari Narayan is a Māngere local with
a wealth of gardening wisdom, which
he freely shares with his community.
Originally from Fiji, Hari came
to New Zealand with 23 years’
experience in the forestry industry.
His family loved life in New Zealand,
and Hari decided to retrain in
horticulture as his ticket to stay.
After working in logging and having to
wait 10 years for trees to grow, he loved
being able to see vegetables harvested
and eaten only six weeks after planting!
Hari completed his studies at MIT
and by the time he graduated, was
already teaching on the course.
His first job took him to an organic
farm, where it became clear to him
that if you wanted to grow healthy
vegetables, you needed healthy soil.
“Healthy soil, healthy vegetables,
healthy people”, says Hari.
This learning has all come together
in his current roles: working as an
educator with both Gardens for
Health and the Compost Collective.
Above: Hari Narayan offers free gardening
and composting workshops in Māngere.
“Health is wealth...
We spend a lot of money on
our health, but prevention
is always better than cure.”
In Māngere, Hari works closely
with seven community gardens,
where he runs gardening and
composting workshops and teaches
people how to feed their families
from their own backyards.
“If you grow your own, you know
what’s going into the soil and
what’s in your food”, says Hari.
“You can avoid the chemicals that
are going into growing the food
that’s sold in supermarkets."
People don’t need to spend lots
of money on gardening, Hari
believes. Growing in containers that
you recycle from your home and
making your own compost and
fertiliser from your household food
scraps works well and helps the
environment at the same time.
“We should be proud Kiwis trying to
stop waste going into landfill”, he says.
Hari believes that it’s important for
us to look ahead at the future for
our children. “If we start educating
our kids now, the future will be very
bright for everyone”, he says. “We
need to rethink our health and go
back to the way things were in our
grandparents time. They had their
own ‘supermarkets’ in their backyards
and grew food without chemicals”.
Hari’s workshops, through
the Compost Collective and
Gardens for Health, are free.
Check out the websites below to
find out about upcoming workshops,
or contact Hari directly at Kiwi
Garden & Composting Ltd (ph.
021 029 17519), if you’d like him
to come and run a workshop in
your neighbourhood or group.
“Health is wealth”, says Hari.
“We spend a lot of money on
our health, but prevention is
always better than cure”.
www.compostcollective.org.nz
www.dpt.org.nz/ourprogrammes/garden-4-health
RISING
STARS
By Ernestina Maro
Ex-Māngere College students Gloria Aiono and Tolu Lesa are representing New Zealand
in volleyball and gridiron respectively.
Gloria has recently returned from Australia, where she has been playing for the New
Zealand Women’s Volleyball team in preparation for the Asian Volleyball Championship.
Tolu Lesa is an up-and-coming star from the gridiron fields of South Auckland,
who has managed to claim a spot in the NZ Gridiron team.
Both these athletes have worked extremely hard to get to where they are. Your
community congratulates you and your families on your successes and wish you
both all the very best in your endeavours.
NZ Volleyball & Gridiron Reps: Gloria Aiono (bottom row, second from right) and Tolu Lesa (below).