Volunteer
Volunteers are a huge part of the ongoing success of the Garden to Table programme. They give their time, skills, and experience to support the programme in schools across Aotearoa.
You don’t need any special skills in gardening, cooking or teaching to be invaluable to a school’s Garden to Table efforts. Heartfelt thanks to all of you who are part of this mahi around Aotearoa!
Schools and kura running the Garden to Table programme need volunteers to help tamariki get the most out of it. This can be in the garden or kitchen, or it could mean supporting their mahi through fundraising and community liaison. Schools take responsibility for outreach and management of their volunteers but the Garden to Table Trust puts volunteers in touch with schools when an opening comes up.
Being part of a Garden to Table programme could look like:
A 2-4 hour a week commitment on average. Typically a school will run sessions on one or two days a week and each session lasts around 90 minutes.
Volunteers act as guides and support to students who are learning new concepts in the kitchen and garden each session. School staff will direct as to what activities are planned for the day and the kids do the doing, so you’re not making up lessons on your own, and you’re not the primary supervisor of tamariki - specialists or teachers are always present.
A key component of Garden to Table is kids getting stuck in and completing tasks in full, as they would at home. This means you’re perfect for the programme if you love guiding rather than taking over, and letting kids lead. You’ll observe and guide children as they perform set tasks, using proper, adult-sized equipment.
A school staff member will be your first port of call for any questions once you join a programme. Each school is responsible for managing their own volunteers and some schools have a policy of requiring a police check for anyone on site.
We have a guide for schools on volunteering which you will find in our Taster Resources section, this is written for schools but will give you a sense of what is involved.
We also have volunteers who support the Trust in a range of other ways through our head office. This can include admin, data entry, delivering flyers, design work, photography, videography, writing, events or other specialist roles and projects.
“I wanted to widen my circle of understanding and experiences, because I felt like I was getting very stuck in my routine, which included investing a lot of my time and thinking in corporate work. I was SO nervous the first time I went to the school, wanting to do it right and be useful as well as liked. It is definitely one of the best decisions I have made, the other adults I have met are all such good people, and the kids are inspirational.”
— Liz, Garden to Table volunteer
Keen to help? Please sign up below, keep reading our e-news to learn more about Garden to Table, and consider supporting us in other ways. Ngā manaakitanga!
