Growing 1,000 young leaders in Auckland from seed
New Zealand
Education, Community, Restoration$2,763
USDby 83 donors
DE
Delicious Revolution
New Zealand
BusinessPlants produce all food on earth. Most people were never taught how to grow them. Delicious Revolution is here to change that. We're building a nationwide movement across Aotearoa to put seeds, soil, and growing skills back into the hands of everyday people — young people, families, and anyone ready to become a producer instead of just a consumer. From our base in Tāmaki Makaurau, we run urban food gardening programs, plant community food forests, and create the systems that turn streets, schools, and backyards into living ecosystems. Every garden we help start is a small act of regeneration. Every person we teach to grow from seed becomes a steward of the land they live on. This isn't about handing out plants. It's about rebuilding the lost relationship between people and the living world that feeds them — one grower, one garden, one neighbourhood at a time. Because when communities know how to grow, they don't just feed themselves. They feed life on Earth.
ĀI
Āiotanga Trust
New Zealand
NonprofitĀiotanga Trust is committed to people thriving in Auckland City Centre (and beyond) by weaving connections between people and place. We support community-led initiatives to increase social connection through shared projects which care for our urban ecology, support the establishment of community hubs which can host community events and programmes and support apartment communities to prepare for essential service disruptions in the form of emergency preparation and response activities.
Project story
Delicious Revolution: 1,000 Young Growers for Tāmaki Makaurau
Plants produce all food on earth. Most people were never taught how to grow them. Delicious Revolution is here to change that.
Our Mission
Delicious Revolution exists to raise a generation that values nature and has the skills to work with her. This spring, we're putting seeds, soil, and growing knowledge into the hands of 1,000 young environmental leaders across Tāmaki Makaurau (Auckland) — supporting young people, alongside their teachers and families, to become producers of their own ecosystems and reconnect with the natural world. Students can either grow their seedlings at school with their teachers / class or at home with a family member.
Each can choose to either grow a food and flower garden where we will provide the seeds, or grow a forest garden — where they will have to collect and propagate native trees and plants.
Why This Work
Horticulture in Aotearoa is a dying industry... It’s not included in mainstream education and is increasingly niche. Young people don't want to be part of it — they see it as hard work instead of inspiring work. Meanwhile, most school garden programs hand students seedlings already grown by someone else and get the students to just plant and harvest them. This practice skips the most important part of environmental education: teaching young the full circle of life from a seed through to harvest. Without this connection, we're raising a generation that doesn't know where their food comes from, doesn't know how to grow it, and doesn't see themselves as participants in the living world. You wouldn’t teach someone how to bake a cake by mixing all the ingredients together for them and just getting them to put it in the oven and eat the end result. For these same reasons, we need to be teaching young people the full process of growing plants.
Our Solution
This spring, we're resourcing 1,000 young environmental leaders across Auckland with everything they need to grow hundreds of their own seedlings and plant out a productive and beautiful garden. Students can self-select or be nominated by teachers, whānau, or community members.
Each student chooses one path at the start, to grow a food and flower garden, or, grow a forest garden (harvesting, collecting, and propagating native trees and plants).
For $100 per student, they receive seeds, a propagation tray, seed raising mix and two full seasons (26 weeks) of online video support carrying them through the spring and summer growing seasons. The location of the growing is up to them — their school, a community garden, their home, or a family farm.
Because this project is Auckland-based, we plan to host in-person workshop events with hands-on sowing workshops and follow-up gatherings at our two flagship urban farms, Manurewa High School and OMG Urban Farm.
If we manage to fund and allocate the total 1000 resource packs, we estimate 1,000 young growers will have produced approximately 250,000 seedlings.
Tracking Impact
We'll track and publicly share the following information:
Number of young leaders nominated, enrolled, and completing the program
Number of schools and Auckland communities participating
Number of gardens created
Number of seedlings produced (food, flowers, and native trees)
Square metres of garden or forest brought to life that wasn't there before
Attendance at in-person workshops and follow-up gatherings
Student-reported confidence and connection to nature (pre/post survey)
Qualitative stories from students, whānau, and teachers about what shifted
Our Experience
Tāmaki Makaurau is the birth place of the Delicious Revolution and we already hold multiple council contracts delivering environmental and ecological education to over 20 schools across the Auckland region.
Delicious Revolution has been doing this work at scale for years.
Our flagship project is a 6,500 square metre urban farm at Manurewa High School, New Zealand's largest high school — now integrated into all levels of school culture, life, and curriculum.
We also operate OMG Urban Farm in central Auckland, established in 2018, which has produced 24 tonnes of food and 9,000 vegetable boxes to date.
Most recently, we trained 250 Auckland city centre residents to grow plants from seed using the exact resource packs and trays this project will use. Earlier in 2022 we ran a campaign to grow 20,000 sunflowers inside one of Auckland's largest hospitals, raising funds for the Starship Foundation.
Across our programs, we've trained hundreds of volunteers and inspired thousands of people to grow food from seed and learn to work with nature.
This project takes everything we've learned, anchors it in our home city, and uses our existing network to take 1,000 young environmental leaders the deepest they've ever gone — producing a quarter of a million seedlings for Tāmaki Makaurau in a single season.
Thank you for reading this and please donate to support this important kaupapa.
Project updates
Team
Growing 1,000 young leaders in Auckland from seed
New Zealand
Education, Community, Restoration
DE
Delicious Revolution
New Zealand
BusinessPlants produce all food on earth. Most people were never taught how to grow them. Delicious Revolution is here to change that. We're building a nationwide movement across Aotearoa to put seeds, soil, and growing skills back into the hands of everyday people — young people, families, and anyone ready to become a producer instead of just a consumer. From our base in Tāmaki Makaurau, we run urban food gardening programs, plant community food forests, and create the systems that turn streets, schools, and backyards into living ecosystems. Every garden we help start is a small act of regeneration. Every person we teach to grow from seed becomes a steward of the land they live on. This isn't about handing out plants. It's about rebuilding the lost relationship between people and the living world that feeds them — one grower, one garden, one neighbourhood at a time. Because when communities know how to grow, they don't just feed themselves. They feed life on Earth.
ĀI
Āiotanga Trust
New Zealand
NonprofitĀiotanga Trust is committed to people thriving in Auckland City Centre (and beyond) by weaving connections between people and place. We support community-led initiatives to increase social connection through shared projects which care for our urban ecology, support the establishment of community hubs which can host community events and programmes and support apartment communities to prepare for essential service disruptions in the form of emergency preparation and response activities.
Project story
Delicious Revolution: 1,000 Young Growers for Tāmaki Makaurau
Plants produce all food on earth. Most people were never taught how to grow them. Delicious Revolution is here to change that.
Our Mission
Delicious Revolution exists to raise a generation that values nature and has the skills to work with her. This spring, we're putting seeds, soil, and growing knowledge into the hands of 1,000 young environmental leaders across Tāmaki Makaurau (Auckland) — supporting young people, alongside their teachers and families, to become producers of their own ecosystems and reconnect with the natural world. Students can either grow their seedlings at school with their teachers / class or at home with a family member.
Each can choose to either grow a food and flower garden where we will provide the seeds, or grow a forest garden — where they will have to collect and propagate native trees and plants.
Why This Work
Horticulture in Aotearoa is a dying industry... It’s not included in mainstream education and is increasingly niche. Young people don't want to be part of it — they see it as hard work instead of inspiring work. Meanwhile, most school garden programs hand students seedlings already grown by someone else and get the students to just plant and harvest them. This practice skips the most important part of environmental education: teaching young the full circle of life from a seed through to harvest. Without this connection, we're raising a generation that doesn't know where their food comes from, doesn't know how to grow it, and doesn't see themselves as participants in the living world. You wouldn’t teach someone how to bake a cake by mixing all the ingredients together for them and just getting them to put it in the oven and eat the end result. For these same reasons, we need to be teaching young people the full process of growing plants.
Our Solution
This spring, we're resourcing 1,000 young environmental leaders across Auckland with everything they need to grow hundreds of their own seedlings and plant out a productive and beautiful garden. Students can self-select or be nominated by teachers, whānau, or community members.
Each student chooses one path at the start, to grow a food and flower garden, or, grow a forest garden (harvesting, collecting, and propagating native trees and plants).
For $100 per student, they receive seeds, a propagation tray, seed raising mix and two full seasons (26 weeks) of online video support carrying them through the spring and summer growing seasons. The location of the growing is up to them — their school, a community garden, their home, or a family farm.
Because this project is Auckland-based, we plan to host in-person workshop events with hands-on sowing workshops and follow-up gatherings at our two flagship urban farms, Manurewa High School and OMG Urban Farm.
If we manage to fund and allocate the total 1000 resource packs, we estimate 1,000 young growers will have produced approximately 250,000 seedlings.
Tracking Impact
We'll track and publicly share the following information:
Number of young leaders nominated, enrolled, and completing the program
Number of schools and Auckland communities participating
Number of gardens created
Number of seedlings produced (food, flowers, and native trees)
Square metres of garden or forest brought to life that wasn't there before
Attendance at in-person workshops and follow-up gatherings
Student-reported confidence and connection to nature (pre/post survey)
Qualitative stories from students, whānau, and teachers about what shifted
Our Experience
Tāmaki Makaurau is the birth place of the Delicious Revolution and we already hold multiple council contracts delivering environmental and ecological education to over 20 schools across the Auckland region.
Delicious Revolution has been doing this work at scale for years.
Our flagship project is a 6,500 square metre urban farm at Manurewa High School, New Zealand's largest high school — now integrated into all levels of school culture, life, and curriculum.
We also operate OMG Urban Farm in central Auckland, established in 2018, which has produced 24 tonnes of food and 9,000 vegetable boxes to date.
Most recently, we trained 250 Auckland city centre residents to grow plants from seed using the exact resource packs and trays this project will use. Earlier in 2022 we ran a campaign to grow 20,000 sunflowers inside one of Auckland's largest hospitals, raising funds for the Starship Foundation.
Across our programs, we've trained hundreds of volunteers and inspired thousands of people to grow food from seed and learn to work with nature.
This project takes everything we've learned, anchors it in our home city, and uses our existing network to take 1,000 young environmental leaders the deepest they've ever gone — producing a quarter of a million seedlings for Tāmaki Makaurau in a single season.
Thank you for reading this and please donate to support this important kaupapa.
Project updates
Team
$2,763
USDFrom 83 donors
$
Activity
Location
New Zealand
This project is part of
Round 3
Supporting community-led nature projects around the world.
Matching funds provided by
