Growing Something Beautiful - Food and Community in Glenavon
Bella Munro has brewed her own kombucha for nearly 20 years, yet every new batch is still an adventure.
“Every bottle is a surprise,” she says. “It might be fizzy and beautiful or it might be flat and sour.”
For Bella, that's a perfect metaphor for community too. Sometimes things don't work the first time, but by experimenting, sharing knowledge and learning from each other, something beautiful grows.
Bella is one of the many people contributing to the Glenavon Kai Village. This initiative is driven by the kaupapa of Kai Aroha, which acknowledges that everyone in a community has something of value to offer, says RJ Thomson, coordinator at the Glenavon Community Hub.
Bella became involved after attending a Kai Conversation event in 2025. Like others there that day, she came to listen, to share her ideas and meet others who cared about their community.
Since then, she has contributed in many ways to Glenavon Kai Village, including helping with developing a kai pop-up app, supporting the launch of a new website and sharing her own knowledge by leading workshops about kombucha-making, baking bread and other skills for making food at home.
"I come from a family culture of connecting people through food. My maternal line of women had their hands in the soil, and were growing things and making things from scratch and feeding more than just their immediate family. Their love of food has stuck with me," says Bella.
She moved here from Australia 16 years ago, and has lived in west Auckland for the last 13 of those years. With two of her children attending Glenavon School, she has a strong connection to the community here.
Through the My Pathways programme run at the Glenavon Community Hub, Bella has forged her own ideas for a social enterprise, which she is calling Village Kitchen. She hopes it will continue those family traditions of growing and making things from scratch, and help empower women.
RJ says My Pathways is a mentoring service funded by the Whau Local Board. It started as a way to help people with their CVs but over time it has evolved into a way of walking alongside people as they discover their own pathway, through upskilling, business mentoring, supporting entrepreneurship and making connections.
"You have to be ready for that pathway, and we're here to encourage people and point them in the right direction. Fortunately for us, we have some highly motivated people involved," says RJ.
Bella is piloting various ideas around the Village Kitchen concept. She sees scope for this to provide a space for donated food to be transformed into nourishing meals, opportunities for parents to cook while children play, and a place where those new to Aotearoa can share recipes from home and older generations can pass on knowledge to younger people.
"This is my own social enterprise I want to set up, which really centres on children and matriarchal principles. I want to find a way to move from simply providing support to women, parents, young people and migrants, to creating a space where they can share their own knowledge and leadership."
For example, making kombucha is about more than just a drink. It’s about slowing down, using what you already have to hand, reconnecting with traditional skills and reminding yourself that nourishing food doesn’t need to be expensive or complicated.
The workshops that Bella has run at Glenavon Kai Village reflect exactly that. Sharing skills such as baking bread show people how everyday ingredients can be made into healthy and affordable food.
When Bella reflects on what she's learned through being involved with Glenavon Kai Village, she says she’s noticed that those skills aren’t something everyone has any more.
"I think any type of community-led and community-building response is going to be vital in what sees us through the coming years. Food resilience is absolutely going to be key. We are always going to need to be fed, and nourished, and connected."
RJ says Bella, like others involved with Glenavon Kai Village, brings a lot of knowledge to the table.
“She’s facilitating workshops, not just participating and she’s proactive in this space. Bella’s here because she sees the value and the worth, not just in this organisation but also in the people involved.”
“Stories such as Bella’s reflect the long-term outcomes we’re seeing now, as we help people recognise their own value,” says RJ.
You can connect with Kai West or Glenavon Community Hub to share your own knowledge and skills and to find out more.