The LOAVES Project
LOAVES (Local Origin Ashhurst Voluntary Exchange System) is a project whose aim is to promote local trade within the village and valley of Ashhurst and Pohangina and throughout the surrounding area. Local artist Jill Walcroft is designing vouchers, which will serve as tokens for local trade and barter. These may be used by participants in lieu of New Zealand Dollars.
Projects like this elsewhere have proven to be of particular advantage to those with lower incomes, and they are designed to give an economic boost to towns or neighbourhoods that wish to be more self-reliant.
Key elements of the project include:
* Connecting local residents to share skills and to support barter for homegrown, homemade goods;
* Creating a network of local businesses to support one another through mutual commerce;
* Developing a web application to promote local businesses, tradespeople, clubs, organisations, and hobbyists who wish to participate in LOAVES barter;
* Promoting LOAVES businesses through a print directory and other means of advertising;
* Creating a LOAVES launch event to celebrate our community: its people and culture, its natural ecology, and its economy.
This Ashhurst Action Group (AAG) project received the start-up funds through a Local Initiatives Grant from the Palmerston North City Council. At the advice of Living Economies (www.le.org.nz), village and valley residents working on the LOAVES project decide to incorporate as a society, RECAP : The Society for the Resilience and Engagement of the Community of Ashhurst and Pohangina Incorporated. The AAG has asked RECAP to take responsibility for deliberations about, and implementation of, the LOAVES project.
Beyond LOAVES, RECAP is designed broadly to serve as an umbrella organisation for other interested clubs and projects in the region. Its constitutional purpose is “to promote the sustainability, diversity, and resilience of the local economy, ecology, and community of the Greater Ashhurst-Pohangina Region,” and its aims address culture, society, and communications, as well as economy, ecology, and community-building.
For more information about LOAVES or RECAP, contact Sharon Stevens, Chairperson (sharon@euphoria.org), or Harvey Jones, Deputy Chairperson (h.jones@inspire.net.nz).