Shared table, shared future: Building food resilient communities

Food insecurity is one of the most immediate impacts of climate disruption. Yet across cultures, food also carries deep knowledge of survival, adaptation and care. This interactive hui explores food resilience through shared wisdom — recognising that in times of stress, relationships determine whether communities fracture or cooperate.

Through a creative embodied exercise facilitated by Ozone Theatre Company, participants step into the roles that make up our food system — growers, transporters, retailers, cooks, pollinators and climate systems — experiencing how disruption such as drought or supply chain breakdown affects the whole. From there, the focus shifts to sharing affordable, nourishing dishes and recipes, exploring what sustains our cultures, and asking practical questions like “What can I make with limited resources?” or “What staples carry us through hard times?" This is mutual exchange, not charity.

Guided small-group dialogue invites reflection on what food security means across cultures and communities, how dietary needs are impacted in emergencies, and what collective commitments could strengthen local resilience. Together, we explore food as social infrastructure — sharing as resilience, cultural knowledge as climate adaptation, and meals as a powerful site of trust-building. Because a shared table can help shape a shared future.

Please feel free to bring a poem, a friend, a recipe or a plate if you like, but not essential.

Kai is provided by Ekta NZ.

This event is part of the Climate Festival Pōneke between 18 April – 9 May 2026.