Help center

Food Resilience School New Zealand is a free community learning platform for food and kai resilience across Aotearoa New Zealand.

You get:

• Published courses across six learning paths (Seed → Leadership)
• Progress tracking and Resilience HP (gamification)
• Community feed, subscribe-to communities, and workshop events
• Optional creator communities for independent providers

Delivered by Vector Group Charitable Trust (CC45966). The public directory for growers and listings lives on Kai Resilience.

1. Go to Join free and create an account with email.
2. Confirm your email if prompted by your mail provider.
3. Sign in at Login on any device.

You can browse courses without an account, but you need to sign in to enroll, complete lessons, earn HP, and post on the feed.

Your progress syncs to your account — grant-ready reporting is handled for VGCT programmes via OSVector integration.

Every course is open. Nothing is locked behind completing another path first.

Suggested entry points:

Use filter chips on the course library: All · My progress · each path name. Search by topic (compost, chickens, funding, etc.).

Higher-tier courses award more HP per lesson — skilled learners can jump straight to advanced topics.

Use the right channel so we can respond quickly:

Feedback — pick a category first (nothing is pre-selected); the form opens after you choose. Submissions are triaged in admin.

Contact — message form on the school site; we reply by email. For site technical issues, use Feedback instead.

Help center — you are here. Search for HP, enroll, communities, certificates, and more before opening a ticket.

Site bugs and feature ideas — Feedback: pick a category (bug, feature, or general), then fill in the form.

Programme, partnership, or workshop enquiries — Contact: on-site message form; we reply by email.

Lesson stuck? Search this help center first — HP, enroll, certificates, communities, and creators are covered above.

Resilience HP (shown on your profile) is your total engagement score — the same number stored as engagement_points on your account.

HP rewards real participation:

Course activities scale by tier — see HP tiers and multipliers. A Leadership lesson pays more than a Seed lesson.

HP feeds your level and leaderboard rank. It does not gate content — all courses stay open.

Levels use a moving ceiling — when new courses publish, level thresholds adjust so titles stay meaningful. Your earned HP is kept; see Levels and titles for how that works.

Each course belongs to a learning path with a tier (T1–T6). Higher tiers multiply HP for enroll, lessons, and course completion.

Course cards show +HP/lesson and a tier badge. Course detail pages show enroll bonus and completion bonus too.

Tip: Mix paths — finish Seed courses for confidence, then take Community or Leadership courses when you want bigger HP jumps.

Your level is calculated from total HP. Level titles celebrate growing involvement.

How the HP ceiling works

The school calculates an HP ceiling from every published course (school + creator): enroll bonus + all lessons + completion bonus, scaled by learning path tier, plus a small buffer (~12%) for feed posts, comments, and events.

That ceiling is not a cap on your score — you keep all HP you earn. It is the yardstick for level thresholds.

Right now 48 published courses produce a ceiling of about 4,946 HP. The table below updates automatically when courses are added or removed.

Level 10 (Regional steward) sits at roughly 82% of the ceiling — finishing most of the catalog, plus some community activity.

What changes when new courses publish?

This is intentional: as the library grows, level titles stay tied to real progress through the catalog instead of everyone maxing out early.

Your profile shows a progress bar to the next level and how much HP you still need.

Public profiles at /u/yourusername show level title and HP for community recognition.

Streak — complete at least one lesson on consecutive days. Shown on your profile when active. Missing a day resets the streak (today still counts as day 1 if you learn today).

Leaderboard — learners with HP > 0 are ranked by total HP. Your profile shows #rank of total active learners. Ranking is for motivation, not prizes (unless VGCT runs a specific campaign).

Earn more HP quickly:

• Complete lessons on higher-tier courses
• Finish whole courses (big completion bonus)
• Post and comment on the feed
• RSVP to events

Open the course library.

• Search by title or topic.
• Filter by path or My progress (courses you already enrolled in).
• Click a course → Enroll free (earn enroll HP).

All six paths are available:

1. Seed (8) — start here if growing feels new
2. Sprout (8) — compost, seeds, seasons, pests
3. Food Forest (8) — perennials, design, mini food forest
4. Home resilience (8) — cook, store, plan, chickens, water
5. Community (8) — gardens, networks, seed libraries
6. Leadership (8) — workshops, funding, capstone project

Some courses show recommended first links (e.g. site observation before food forest design). You can still enroll anytime.

After enrolling:

1. Open a lesson from the course page.
2. Read or watch content — many lessons use markdown, some use embedded interactives.
3. Complete quizzes and reflections where shown (reflections may post to the feed if you choose).
4. Mark complete or use Continue to advance — HP is awarded when a lesson is first completed.

Progress appears on course cards and your profile. Resume anytime via Continue on the course or profile list.

Staff mentors can preview courses without enrolling; learners need enrollment to save progress.

When you complete all lessons in a course:

• You earn a large course completion HP bonus (tier-scaled).
• You may receive an email congratulations (if email is enabled).
• Open View certificate on the course page or visit the course complete page (/courses/your-course-slug/complete).

Share wins on the community feed — optional but helps local food resilience spread.

The Community feed is the main social space.

• Posts earn 5 HP; comments earn 3 HP.
• Lesson reflections can optionally share to the feed when you complete them.
• Use the feed to show harvests, ask questions, or find neighbours.
• Filter by a specific community feed after you subscribe.

Be respectful — VGCT community guidelines apply. Site bugs and broken lessons: Feedback. Programme questions: Contact.

Browse and subscribe

Communities — public directory of the official school catalog and independent creator providers. Click Subscribe to join a community (same as joining its group). Some communities approve requests before you can join.

After subscribing:

• Open My communities (/groups) to see everything you follow
• Use Open community feed to post and read that community's feed
• Linked courses may auto-enroll when you subscribe

My communities is your signed-in hub for feeds and memberships. Communities is where you discover new ones.

Workshops and events

Events — public workshops and gatherings. RSVP earns 5 HP. Cancel RSVP from the events page if plans change.

Creators and mentors can propose workshops at Workshop drafts (mentor access). Choose school calendar only or request Kai Resilience network listing — admins review and publish; creators cannot push to the network themselves.

Notifications

Bell icon in the header for enrollments, completions, and event reminders.

Two types of learning spaces:

1. Official school catalog — VGCT-reviewed courses on Seed–Leadership paths (/courses), grouped under the school community on Communities.
2. Creator communities — independent providers run their own space: their courses, feed, and members.

Want to teach?

1. Read how listing works on Creators.
2. Submit the application at Creators apply — community name, expertise, optional organisation and profile links.
3. After admin approval you get mentor tools, a creator community, and a public profile (organisation and links you provided; course pitch stays private).

Mentor tools (approved creators)

• Course drafts — build lessons; admin publishes to the catalog.
• Workshop drafts — propose events for /events; admin approves and optionally pushes to Kai Resilience.
• Mentor dashboard — cohort activity and quick links.

Official pathways and creator communities are separate catalogs — learners browse both from Communities and subscribe to follow a provider.

Profile (signed in) shows:

• Resilience HP and level progress bar
• Streak and leaderboard rank
• Courses enrolled / complete / in progress
• Progress by path bars
• Per-course progress with Continue links

Public page — set a username in Settings. Others visit /u/yourusername to see your level, HP, and lesson counts. Approved creators also show their organisation, profile links, and linked community on their public page.

Update display name, bio, and avatar on profile/settings. Link RootyToot from profile if you use the network.

Some lessons include an AI lesson helper panel. It is off by default — many learners prefer human community support.

Enable in Settings → AI lesson helper. Admins can override for support cases.

AI answers are supplementary; always verify planting and safety advice for your local conditions.

Read our Privacy policy and Terms of service. VGCT also publishes a charity privacy policy.

Progress data (enrollments, lesson completions, HP) supports learner dashboards and grant reporting for charitable programmes. Aggregated stats may appear in VGCT reports — not sold to third parties.

Delete account or data requests: Contact.

Tools (/tools) — links to Troppo calculators, canopy visualiser, nursery map, and other grower utilities (mostly on troppo.nz subdomains).

Network hub (/network) — sister sites in the VGCT / kai cluster:

• Kai Resilience — directory and listings
• RegenOS — land planning (linked from food forest courses)
• Vector Group — charity hub
• Food Forests NZ, Kiwifruit.Capital, and more

Course pages may show RegenOS next step cards where relevant.

The Grower dictionary is a searchable reference for kai growers — separate from school platform how-to articles above.

Topics covered:

• Food forests, syntropic agroforestry, permaculture, and agroforestry
• Raised beds, hugelkultur, no-dig, wicking beds, and season extension
• Hydroponics — DWC, RDWC, NFT, ebb and flow, Kratky, aeroponics
• Water harvesting, swales, drip irrigation, and greywater context
• Compost, mulch, cover crops, IPM, and soil biology
• pH, EC, dissolved oxygen, and microclimates
• NZ kai context (kūmara, water rules, kai resilience)

Each term has a shareable anchor link (for example /grower-dictionary#dwc). Missing a term? Use Feedback and we will expand the dictionary.

For interactive calculators see /tools. For structured learning see /courses.