Media Release, for immediate release, Thursday 9 December 2010
Palmerston North Volunteers Hit the Big Screen
Palmerston North’s Plant to Plate Aotearoa is about to get its television debut on the new TVNZ6 series Volunteer Power.
The voluntary organisation Plant to Plate was filmed last month by a TVNZ6 crew to feature in the new television series,
with their feature episode first going to air on Saturday (11 December).
Presented by Julia Bloore (nee Wright) from TVNZ 6's In Between, and Jim Mora of Mucking In fame, Volunteer Power tells the stories of visionary and award-winning projects operating in Kiwi communities - fuelled by the boundless
energy of community volunteers.
Plant to Plate is one of 25 voluntary groups from around the country that will be featured in the new series, which
follows the Supreme Winners from the regional TrustPower Community Awards. Plant to Plate was named Supreme Winner of
the 2010 TrustPower Palmerston North Community Awards in August this year.
Plant to Plate’s mission is to educate local school children; enjoy the great outdoors and eat real food, grown from
scratch in school yard gardens all served up with love, laughter and a new found passion for ‘real food’. Plant to Plate
volunteers are a diverse bunch of worldly volunteers who are giving back to the community by sharing their joint
knowledge of gardening and home cooking.
Sian Cass, the group’s horticultural guru speaks of Plant to Plate’s desire to extend the concept of healthy living and
healthy eating to a wider audience.
“The Volunteer Power episode will show audiences how easy it is to live the healthy eating and healthy living concept and how it can be
incorporated into family life. The kids will show how it’s done!”
“Our Plant to Plate programme shares the knowledge of these fundamentals of living. We hope that the episode will make
people more aware of what we are offering and stimulate interest to utilise our services,” says Ms. Cass.
TrustPower Community Relations Representative Suzi Luff says it is enormously exciting to see the winners of the
TrustPower Community Awards being profiled on the big screen.
“Plant to Plate’s volunteers are delivering a very important message to our children, teaching them about food, where it
comes from, how to grow it and best of all how to eat it. It’s fabulous that this initiative and the volunteers behind
it are being showcased and celebrated nationally through Volunteer Power,” says Miss Luff.
The new episode of Volunteer Power that features Plant to Plate will first air on Saturday 11 December at 7.55 pm, and then on Sunday 12 December at 7.55
pm, Wednesday 15 December at 7.55 pm and on Thursday 16 December at 11.55 pm. The episode will then be played at various
times each week from then on.
For more information about Volunteer Power, including weekly screening schedules and the ability to watch episodes online, go to www.tvnz.co.nz/volunteerpower .
TVNZ 6 is available on Freeview/TiVo channel 6 and on SKY/Telstra channel 16.
ENDS