Te Awamutu Community Food Forest instigators Megan Priscott, James Bannister (left) and volunteer Nick Tautari grab a hot coffee before getting to work at Pekapekarau Reserve earlier this year. Photo / Dean Taylor
Te Awamutu Community Food Forest instigators Megan Priscott, James Bannister (left) and volunteer Nick Tautari grab a hot coffee before getting to work at Pekapekarau Reserve earlier this year. Photo / Dean Taylor
Volunteers and fruit pickers at the newly developed Te Awamutu Community Food Forest are devastated after they discovered their “backyard” had been vandalised on Saturday.
The usual five volunteers headed home after a long day at work in the food forest at Pekapekarau Reserve on Friday, but when they turned up on Saturday they found others had been hard at work destroying things.
Te Awamutu Community Food Forest Trust chairwoman Megan Priscott said it was sad because the team put so many hours into creating a beautiful space for the community.
“They had broken branches off trees; kicked in new tanks we had just been donated by Bowers Concrete. They ran over and pulled signs out and damaged them. They picked all the apples off and threw them around.
“When someone feels like they want to damage everyone’s hard work and donations, it’s so undermining. And for what? They don’t get anything out of it and everything is there to use. Now it just means that the community isn’t going to get those apples until next year.”
Just 12 hours after these concrete tanks were delivered to the Te Awamutu Food Forest, they were damaged by vandals. Photo / Megan Priscott
Priscott said the food forest was created for the good of everyone and it was sad to see it being undervalued.
“The kids of Pekapekarau Primary do a lot of planting there and use it for education purposes. We’re transforming this space with our own time and love, and it’s sad when people undervalue or disrespect that.
“The kids are the guardians of the food forest, and they do feel like their backyards have been destroyed by this.”
Even though the vandalism has left the community devasted, Priscott said this will not stop progress on the project.
Branches were pulled off trees at the Te Awamutu Community Food Forest. Photo / Megan Priscott
“There’s nothing we’re not going to fix and there’s nothing there that we can’t fix, so we will. We will go in through the next week and fix everything, and we’ve already started. We’ll clean everything up and rebuild.
“We’ve learned from this incident, and we’re gonna get flyers and put them into letterboxes telling people about the food forest, what we have planned, and sort of keep them in the loop [and ask] them to be vigilant - if they hear anything or see anything, [they should] call the police.
“It will build awareness and bring the community together. We probably could put up security stuff, but I don’t think we need to, and we do not want to go down that path.”
Priscott confirmed the offenders had been located “fairly quickly” by police through CCTV cameras in the area and the help of locals.
“They were identified immediately by locals and they were approached by some of them while they were doing it, but they were threatened so they backed off. Police are taking it seriously and dealing with whoever did it.”
A police spokesperson said: “Police are investigating after a report of wilful damage at a food forest in Te Awamutu, between Friday, December 8 and Saturday, December 9.”
“Police have reviewed CCTV and identified youths of interest, and inquiries are ongoing.”
Priscott extended her apologies to the volunteers last Friday and Bowers Concrete, because it had been just 12 hours since they donated the tanks when they were damaged.
Planting in the Te Awamutu Food Forest began in Pekarau Reserve, Fawley Place Reserve and Sherwin Park in 2022 as communal fruit forests and spaces where members of the community can share and connect with each other.
