Tamariki Are Change-Makers: Our 2025 Annual Report Is Here 🌱
Tamariki at Birchwood School in Whakatū-Nelson sharing kai
Our newly released Annual Report is a celebration of everything our schools, whānau, volunteers, and supporters have grown together over the past year. It's also an honest reflection on the challenges we navigated, and the resilience that carried us through.
A Year of Highlights
In 2025, Garden to Table reached 318 schools and over 33,000 tamariki across Aotearoa New Zealand. But the impact can't be measured in meals alone - it shows up in confidence, curiosity, and communities brought together around the table.
In Wairarapa, students at Whareama School hosted a Root to Tip Cooking Competition at their local marae, challenging themselves to prepare delicious kai while using every part of the vegetable — cauliflower arancini, beetroot brownies, roast kūmara chips, and more. Judges were so blown away they declared the whole community the winner.
Tamariki from Whareama School in Wairarapa proudly showing their entry in the Root-to-Tip cooking competition.
In Te Moana-a-Toitehuatahi - Bay of Plenty, three rural schools who had never visited each other before spent a day touring each other's gardens. By the end of the day, phone numbers had been exchanged and one child had discovered lemon balm for the first time: "It looks like mint, but smells like ice blocks!"
For Compost Awareness Week tamariki at Riverview School in Te Tai Tokerau - Northland measured and layered soil, greens, browns, and sticks in bottles, learning that composting is a bit like baking a cake — the right mix makes all the difference. They even practised vertical measuring and tracked how their compost condensed over time.
Tamariki fron Riverview School in Te Tai Tokerau- Northland creating compost in a jar.
And at Arohanui Special School in Tāmaki Makaurau, a visit from our Education Facilitator turned into a hands-on session of greens and cheese fritters (made in a waffle maker!), hummus, and colourful slaw — ending with the Transition Unit leading everyone in their Karakia Kai with confidence and pride.
Stories That Stay With You
Some of the most moving moments in the report come straight from the tamariki themselves.
A student from Kaimata School in Taranaki said “When we got to cook we had yummy food. It was hard to believe that the foods we had cut and prepared tasted so good. I got mum to buy the ingredients so I could make it at home.”
Seven-year-old Lachie from Nelson says his best dish was plum crumble, and that he's helping his mum cook at home now. "I can even use a knife properly!"
And a young learner at a kindergarten in Auckland summed up the whole kaupapa beautifully: "Gardens make special food… We planted more flowers for the bees and butterflies and birds — every creature that's got wings, so they can collect pollen and make us vegetables and fruit."
The People Who Make It Possible
Behind every session in the garden and kitchen is an extraordinary network of volunteers. This year we celebrated some of them: Rita, who has spent over a decade in the Dawson School gardens in Tāmaki Makaurau after retiring, and describes harvesting potatoes as "like digging for gold." Conrad, a busy business owner who gives up every Monday morning to guide Year 7–8 students in Southland. Lorraine, who started volunteering at Dominion Road School when her mokopuna joined the programme — and never stopped.
Volunteer Rita with tamariki from Dawson School in Tāmaki Makaurau - Auckland.
We also celebrated our incredible Chair and founding trustee, Catherine Bell MNZM, who was awarded a King's Birthday Honour for her services to food education. A moment of enormous pride for our whole community.
Looking Ahead
2025 was not without its challenges — the economic climate has been tough for families and organisations alike, and we undertook a restructure that meant farewelling some treasured team members. But we enter 2026 with renewed focus, a comprehensive survey of our schools informing how we support them better, and an exciting range of new resources — from te reo Māori recipe collections to real-life maths units — ready to go.
As CEO Ani Brunet put it: "Kai brings people together, and through the love of growing and sharing kai, people together create positive solutions that all help address the major economic, social, and environmental problems we face."
Read the Full Report
There is so much more to explore — impact data, stories from schools across the motu, highlights from our 15th Anniversary celebrations, and our full audited financial report.
We would like to acknowledge and thank all our supporters, we truly could not create this impact for tamariki without you.
Ngā mihi nui to our Partner T&G Global . Thank you also to our much valued sponsors, all featured here: https://gardentotable.org.nz/supporters
Kia ora rawa atu Fisher and Paykel Healthcare Foundation for your incredible support to our mahi in South Auckland and for our cultural learning and development.
E mihi ana ki BVO Audit for your support with our 2025 Audit, and review of our Performance Report included in our Annual Report.
Ngā mihi nui to our schools, tamariki and the incredible staff and volunteers who teach our children to grow, harvest, prepare and share great kai through Garden to Table.
And if you'd like to be part of this movement — as a donor, volunteer, sponsor, or school — we'd love to hear from you.
Ngā mihi nui,
The Garden to Table Team
He kai, kei aku ringa — there is food at the end of my hands.