South Campus garden

The community gardens at AUT South Campus are located behind the gym. The Manaaki Sustainability group helps tend to the vegetable gardens, while the Manukau Gardening Club offers students a chance to learn more about gardening.

Raised garden beds

Throughout the year, the 12 raised garden beds located behind ME block host a range of student and community projects.

Raised garden beds at the South Campus

Manaaki Sustainability

Manaaki Sustainability is a small group of Manaaki New Zealand scholars united by a shared commitment to create a better world by promoting sustainability through community planting. Also, guided by the principle of manaakitanga, they aim to honour the kindness and support they received upon our arrival in AUT through this simple but meaningful project.

What began with volunteer roles at AUT Sustainability has evolved into an ongoing project to care for the vegetable gardens at AUT’s South Campus. Working with the maintenance officer, Oliver, they dedicate time each week (usually Fridays) to work in the South Campus gardens, focusing on tasks like weeding, (re)planting, pruning, and any other activities that help to beautify and sustain the gardens.

Manukau Gardening Club

Meet new people, try something new and help cultivate gardens ki Manukau at South Campus on Mondays at 11am at Te Māra Kai Garden beds directly behind ME building.

All students are welcome to share knowledge, learn and cultivate herbs and vegetables. There's no need to register, you can just turn up. If you have any questions, speak to Te Mātāpuna Library and Learning staff ki Manukau at South Campus.

The garden club is happy at work

Pacific Food Lab – Aotearoa

Pacific Food Lab – Aotearoa and our project, "Let’s Meet in the Kitchen" are all about the power of food to bring us together to share and have fun, celebrate and eat great food.

On 5 February 2021, we officially launched Pacific Food Lab – Aotearoa in partnership with AUT South Campus. This event saw PFL-A founding members Tracy Berno (AUT), Soane Pasi (chef) and Jason Burgess (journalist and photographer) introduce and implement “Let’s Meet in the Kitchen”, an initiative that was first started in the Pacific region with our PFL-NC colleagues. “Let’s Meet in the Kitchen” is a celebration of the power of food to bring us together as a community in a way that encourages sharing of ideas, information, knowledge, and of course, food.

Volunteers at the harvest