At our kindergarten, we have set up a Trading Table, to promote reusing items and community interdependence. Whanau and members of the community are welcome to take anything they can use. They can bring in something in exchange, make a monetary donation, or if neither of those work, they are still welcome to help themselves. Fruits, vegetables, and children's clothes are the most popular items, although we get everything from books to craft supplies to baby carriers.
We also sell our worm juice and worm dirt from our worm farms on this shelf, which is always popular.
We also sell our worm juice and worm dirt from our worm farms on this shelf, which is always popular.
In addition to being a fun and sustainable program, our Trading Table is actually an effective fundraiser! We've made several hundred dollars in less than a year, and have been able to use the money to purchase gardening tools and other materials for our Enviroschools program.
A note: You may have noticed that our "Trading Table" is not actually a table. It used to be, but has been upgraded to shelves, due to our efforts to respect tikanga by not having food and shoes (or other potentially dirty items) on the same surface. We are brainstorming on what the new name should be, but haven't come
to a conclusion yet.
Wow Puketapu, that is such a great idea! I love trading posts (shelves?) as a way to share resources - one persons trash is another persons treasure! Thanks for posting - it is great to see this initiative supporting your community and raising funds as well. Donna Davies (Enviroschools Facilitator)
ReplyDeleteI love this idea!!! Well done. Kim Waite Toko School
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