Green Apple Awards Entry — Kai Resilience Living Lab Te Puke 2026

Vector Group Charitable Trust (CC45966) — Green Apple Awards 2026 entry announcement and public submission text.

Vector Group Charitable Trust has submitted an entry to the Green Apple Awards 2026 (The Green Organisation) for our nature-based kai resilience work in Te Puke. Below is the substance of what we entered — so communities, funders, and partners can see the same narrative the judges receive.

Entry name: Kai Resilience Living Lab — Te Puke Food Forest & Community Growing Category: Environmental Improvement · Nature-Based Solutions Sector: Charity / NGO Status: Submitted 25 July 2026 — outcome pending

This sits alongside our 2026 Aotearoa AI Awards submissions for the digital tools that support the same living lab. Those are a separate technology track. This Green Apple entry is for the environmental, nature-based practice itself.

Entry details

Project aim

Vector Group Charitable Trust (CC45966) is a community charity based in Te Puke, Bay of Plenty, New Zealand. Our aim is to build practical kai (food) and ecological resilience so local people can grow, share, and learn — reducing dependence on fragile supply chains while restoring soil, biodiversity, and neighbourhood capability.

The project is a nature-based living lab anchored at Troppo, our tropical/subtropical urban food forest demonstration and learning site. Around that place-based work we run community growing and produce sharing, youth and adult education (including Food Resilience School NZ), and open tools that help growers plan regenerative plantings. RegenOS supports ecological planning and species intelligence. Our public kai hub at kairesilience.food connects growers and communities to practical resources under the Kai Resilience Network brand.

We favour complementary perennial systems — fruit, nuts, berries, and edge plantings — that protect sunlight for annual food production and stay manageable for volunteers. The long-term aim is a resilient local food culture that other New Zealand towns can adapt: more households growing, healthier ecosystems, and shared open knowledge.

Project achievements

Over more than a decade, Vector Group has pioneered kai resilience practice in Te Puke: community fridge and pātaka kai activity, seasonal produce access, food forest establishment, plant gifting, crop swaps, grower mobilisation, and public education. Troppo is the living demonstration site — documented through troppo.nz and an active Troppo Facebook page with ongoing posts from real delivery on the ground.

Education and access layers extend that work: Food Resilience School NZ, the kairesilience.food hub, and related grower pathways. RegenOS and connected tools support ecological planning so knowledge is not lost when projects end. We publish a public kai resilience record on vectorgroup.org.nz so funders and communities can see what has actually been built.

In 2026 we also submitted entries to the Aotearoa AI Awards (AI Forum New Zealand) for the digital tools that support this living lab — a separate technology awards track, outcome pending. This Green Apple entry is for the environmental, nature-based practice itself: sustained community growing systems, ecological literacy, and transferable methods for Aotearoa New Zealand.

Written submission

What did the project involve doing?

Vector Group Charitable Trust runs a kai resilience living lab in Te Puke as a nature-based solution to local food and ecological vulnerability. Core strands include:

1. Troppo — a tropical/subtropical urban food forest demonstration with nursery, tours, and education (troppo.nz; facebook.com/troppo.nz).
2. Community growing networks — crop swaps, grower connection, plant gifting, and neighbourhood food capability.
3. Education — workshops, tours, and Food Resilience School NZ pathways (foodresilience.school.nz).
4. Open digital tools — RegenOS (regenos.app) and related planning/knowledge tools that help people design and manage regenerative plantings.
5. Public kai hub — kairesilience.food, operating under the Kai Resilience Network brand as a practical gateway for growers and communities.
6. Public documentation — evidence-based kai resilience records on vectorgroup.org.nz so implementation is visible, not only planned.

Why did you do it?

Te Puke sits in a highly productive growing region, yet households remain exposed to food-system disruption, cost pressure, and loss of practical growing skill. Local food resilience is practical climate and community risk reduction: if communities can grow, save, share, and teach kai using living systems, they are stronger. Place-based demonstration (Troppo) plus open tools and education means the work can spread beyond one site without requiring every community to invent from scratch.

What did it cost, and where did the money come from?

The programme runs on a lean charity model: koha/donations, limited grants, volunteer labour, and small education/related income. Exact year-by-year costs vary; recent trust income has been under NZD 100,000, with kai/Troppo activity heavily supported by the wider charity. High environmental and social return from modest cash, because the model is practice-first and volunteer-enabled, not capital-heavy infrastructure.

Who and what benefitted?

Local whānau and neighbours gain plants, produce-sharing culture, and growing skills. Youth gain land-based learning and belonging through contribution. Growers gain subtropical/regenerative knowledge through Troppo, education pathways, and tools such as RegenOS. Ecosystems benefit through soil-building, biodiversity, and perennial food systems. Wider NZ communities can access the kairesilience.food hub and adapt published methods. The public record supports accountability.

Longer term benefits?

Perennial systems mature over years: fruiting trees, soil health, neighbourhood growing norms, and retained ecological knowledge. Digital tools (including RegenOS) and the kai hub help preserve design intelligence beyond any single volunteer cycle. The model aims for 10–30 year resilience, not short-term planting theatre.

Was there anything innovative about the project?

Combining a living food forest demonstration with open grower tools, a national-facing kai hub, and education pathways — run by a small regional charity. Innovation is practical: climate-suited planting, open knowledge, volunteer-smart design (edge/perimeter perennials rather than unmanageable dense biomass forests against vegetable beds), and digital systems that support nature-based delivery rather than replace it. Related activity: 2026 Aotearoa AI Awards entries submitted (AI Forum New Zealand) for the supporting digital stack — outcome pending.

Can other organisations/communities benefit from implementing your methods?

Yes. Start with high-light annual beds; place fruit/nut/berry and shelter on edges; teach through tours and school pathways; use open tools such as RegenOS where useful; connect through kairesilience.food; document evidence. Other NZ towns with similar climates can adapt these nature-based methods without copying a costly institutional structure.

What did you learn, and further development?

Dense syntropic-style plantings next to community vegetable gardens often fail volunteers through shade, root competition, and constant skilled pruning. We advocate complementary design. Further development: expand education pathways, strengthen RegenOS and open tooling, grow the kairesilience.food hub as a practical network brand, pursue perimeter food-forest designs with councils and community gardens, and keep delivery evidence public — including ongoing Troppo Facebook documentation of real site work.

Accreditation / related activity

Registered charity CC45966 (Charities Services). NZBN 9429045972324. Related 2026: Aotearoa AI Awards (AI Forum New Zealand) entries submitted for kai-resilience digital tools — outcome pending. This Green Apple entry is for our environmental nature-based practice centred on Troppo and community kai resilience.

Supporting links

• Troppo — Tropical Urban Food Forest
• Troppo on Facebook
• Troppo on Instagram
• Kai Resilience hub
• Food Resilience School NZ
• RegenOS
• OSVector.ai
• Our Record in Western Bay Kai Resilience
• Aotearoa AI Awards — Best Implementation entry

We will update this post when the Green Apple Awards outcome is known.