26/10/2026
Clarissa is one of our amazing behind-the-scenes volunteers who 100% deserves to be in the spotlight for helping Kaicycle tick. She’s taken many of the photos you see on our website and compiles this very newsletter for us every month - we couldn’t do it without her! She fits this in around her whānau and her exciting new portrait practice - check it out here.
How long have you been volunteering at Kaicycle and what do you do?
I met Rose in September 2024 when I applied for the Newsletter Editor position. I remember walking around the māra with her for the first time and I couldn’t believe how much food could actually be grown in such cold weather in the middle of the city. Coming from tropical, urban Rio de Janeiro, I had very little knowledge of growing food and was then dealing with what became a permanent part of my life here: winter blues. But the healing I felt at the Kaicycle farm the moment I arrived made me feel instantly connected to that space. I really see it as a sacred place.
Since then I have felt an aching urge to contribute to Kaicycle, in the hope that one day every suburb in Te Whanganui-a-Tara could have a māra composting, growing vegetables and sharing knowledge within a few blocks of every household. So that people could grow kai, connect and heal.
What is your favourite thing about volunteering at Kaicycle?
Editing Kaicycle's newsletters has quietly been educating me about what is being done in Wellington and across Aotearoa towards building something better. From signing petitions and joining protests to buying veggie bags, the newsletters have inspired me and shown me how to turn what I care about into action.
I deeply admire the people, the mahi and the vision of Kaicycle to reclaim control of local food systems and promote climate justice. And I absolutely love the community side of it. It all feels both urgent and radical to me. Kaicycle is one of those rare things that addresses so many of our collective wounds at once - environmental, social and personal - through something as fundamental and joyful as growing food together.
If you were a vegetable what would it be and why?
I would definitely be a mandioca. Cassava in English, yuca in Spanish. I have not found a te reo Māori word for it yet, but I am still looking.
I have always thought of mandioca as a deeply community-minded vegetable. Root vegetables in general make me think of a group of individuals, together, in chubby bunches underground. E noho ana rātou hei rōpū, quietly doing their thing. So I would be a mandioca because I am deeply connected to my roots. I’m often seen singing and dancing among the samba players at Brazilian gigs or cooking for dozens of people at our community gatherings. My roots and my land live within me.
I am also a passionate cassava advocate haha. I would love to find someone growing mandioca here in Aotearoa. If anyone knows of a cassava grower in New Zealand, please, please tell me. If not, maybe that’s a challenge for Kaicycle? I would show up to that volunteer day, zero hesitation. I don't care if Crofton Downs is a trek, I'll be there. :D
