Local Food options for Waiheke

Here is a list of Waiheke food supply and distribution options which we are aware of. If you know of others please add them here. If you create an account on this site you will be able to edit this page.

A group called "The food forum" came together from the Transition Waiheke Hui on March 15th, and has begun compiling a list of food producers and outlets.

Then on the night of June 6th a fire caused considerable damage to the Waiheke Supermarket, a food supply for many of the island's residents. This caused the community to get active in many ways.

Here is a list of some of the suppliers and distributors of food that you can benefit from in the absence of the more common option of supermarket purchasing.

Community Sharing

Ooooby (out of our own back yards) www.ooooby.org

The GROW stall at the Saturday Ostend market

The five community gardens - ask at the GROW stall

Distributors

Food Direct - Russ and Lara

Various Waiheke food coops - ask around, there are quite a lot of them

Waiheke Permaculture Group - Food buying club

Shops

Waiheke Fruit and Veg Oneroa (locally owned)

Oneroa Four Square (Franchise I think)

Little Oneroa Beach Store - locally owned

Surfdale Dairy

Palm Beach Store

Ostend Dairy

The Organic shop - Tahi Rd, Ostend

Seafood shop - Tahi Rd (also sells Waiheke grown meats)

The Service Stations - Oneroa, Ostend, Onetangi

Up and coming

Waiheke Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) - Event notice

Do you know of others... ?

Food system resilence

Resilience is a system's ability to withstand shocks and quickly re-organise without undue disruption. By now most of us have experienced the impact of suddenly not having access to the supermarket, and seen how quickly our spirited Waiheke community has self organised.

Small stores have been stocking up, putting on more staff, and working hard to provide the essentials. Enterprises such as Russ and Lara's Food Direct are seizing the moment and increasing their capacity. The Waiheke Permaculture group met on Monday night to start a buyers club for direct purchasing and distribution of bulk foods. The island's many coops are continuing to fill the gap.

Other initiatives, such as ooooby.org have been working on alternatives to the globalised centralised food production and distribution model for some time. Another of these is the Waiheke Community Supported Agriculture project.

This sudden change to the local food system is a great opportunity for reflection and a chance for the small and diverse enterprises to ramp it up a notch. Through all of these efforts we are building greater resilience into our Waiheke food supply and distribution systems.

For more information email james.samuel@transitiontowns.org.nz or call 0274 372  082