7.30 pm Grey Lynn Community Centre, 510 Richmond Rd, Auckland
Katherine Smith
Dear Friends,
We have some serious problems in NZ. And with the current world economic situation it looks as though they could get worse. Soon.
Shelves in food banks are emptying out faster than ever as the cost of food (and other basic items) have gone up. We have 200,000 children are at risk of having insufficient food or poor nutrition because the main (or only) income in their household is a government benefit. Many more families are struggling because parents’ wages are low; children in these families are also at risk.
We need concerted community action to begin to solve the problem of hunger and poor nutrition not just because these children deserve good food – but because if we do not start to resolve this problem we will all end up paying for the increased health care costs, education costs (hungry children can’t concentrate and learn properly) and crime costs (children who fail at school are more likely to get involved in criminal activity) which have poor nutrition as a root cause.
To help solve this problem, we have started a new website www.growtogether.org.nz.
The website will provide people with the information they need to start producing food for themselves, their families, friends and neighbours and the wider community.
A public meeting to focus on community action to address the problem of hunger AND THE SOLUTIONS will be held at The Grey Lynn Community Centre, 510 Richmond Rd, Grey Lynn, Auckland at 7.30 pm on Tuesday December 13.
Speakers at the meeting will Dr John Hinchcliff, former Vice Chancellor of AUT, city councillor and president of the Peace Foundation, Margaret Jones from the Soil and Health Association, Vapi Kupenga, academic, health researcher and host of a popular show on Radio Waatea, and Allison Roe, MBE, athlete and healthy lifestyle proponent.
Contributions from other people at the meeting who have ideas about how to address New Zealand’s growing problems with hunger and deprivation will be most welcome.
We need to generate community-based solutions to the problem of hunger and poor nutrition now so that we can move forward together as a nation without hundreds of thousands of children having their futures blighted by a lack of good food.
Please consider this email your personal invitation to the meeting and if you can, please RSVP by visiting www.growtogether.org.nz and emailing through Contact form (at the top right hand side of the page) with RSVP in the subject line. I realise that it is very close to Christmas, and that the meeting has been organised at very short notice so if you cannot attend the meeting but would like to become informed and receive updates on this issue, please reply with “add me to your database” in the subject line and include your name and contact details in the body of the email.
Many thanks.
Please feel free to forward this letter to others who would be interested in this issue.
Yours sincerely,
Katherine Smith
PO Box 44-128
Point Chevalier
Auckland 1246
