Kai Fest planners receive Rata funding boost

August 2nd, 2016

Vision Motueka has received a grant of $12,000 from Rata Foundation to help administer and run the inaugural Motueka Kai Fest event next April.

The fund will be used by the event planning team to pay for a contracted event coordinator and for about half of the event set-up and running costs.

The Kai Fest celebration will be held on April 9th 2017 mainly to give local people the opportunity to celebrate the food we grow, along with the special climate, water, land and people that allow it to happen. (See our earlier story.)

The organisers, a team of people from across a range of community groups under the umbrella of Vision Motueka, hope to make it such a success that it will be an annual event that brings the community together, maybe attracts visitors during the tourism shoulder season, but definitely educates about our abundant region.

Team coordinator Petra Stephenson says the grant from Rata Foundation (previously known as Canterbury Community Trust) will be a huge help in their preparations.

"It gives us added confidence that the event will get strong financial and community backing," she says. "It will be so important that the first year of the event runs really well, and that it becomes like a signature event for the town.

"In these uncertain times, it's important that we all appreciate the value of being able to grow such fantastic food around Motueka. What better way to celebrate this than a big community event."

Vision Motueka chairman David Armstrong says Rata Foundation has been great to work with. In 2015 Rata also funded the administration of Vision's "Motueka 2030" community consultation.

"When we were preparing our application for funds, we talked directly with their funding team when they visited Motueka in June and then by phone," he says.

"They gave great advice in what to apply for and what not to, and their online application process was easy to use. And the result of the application was fed back to us within a month, which is a huge help in our planning work."

The Kai Fest team last week placed advertisements for a contracted event coordinator. Applications close on August 12th, and the coordinator will start work in September.

The volunteer planning team has been working for the past 10 months developing the event concept, with financial help of nearly $5,000 from five community organisations for the work of a contracted event creator.

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