Kiwibank is working with Jade Temepara, award-winning writer, mother, teacher and founder of visionary charity Hand over a Hundy. The organisation aims to help young families ‘learn to grow and produce their own vegetable gardens’ with a sponsored hundy ($100) to buy their garden essentials and a mentor to provide guidance. Once they have recouped their savings through growing/selling their produce, they Hand over a Handy to a new family. We are proud to be working with Jade and together, we will bring you ideas, recipes, tips and advice.
Hand over a Hundy – Who is Jade Temepara?
Close your eyes and take a moment to imagine the bluest of skies; a pathway of green grass cocooning your feet in comfy slippers and a jungle of colourful vegetables reaching towards the sunshine gratefully showering them with love. This idyllic vision is the dream of gardening expert Jade Temepara; founder of not-for-profit organisation, Hand over a Hundy. Jade, 34, one day hopes to encourage as many families as possible to live off the land and reap the benefits of growing their own food.
With five energetic home-schooled children to feed and a business to run, not to mention the other organisations Jade leads and supports, her ambition may seem as blue as the sky she imagines. This is where Jade is different – she wants to empower people to make the change and appreciate how easy it is to grow and nurture a plentiful garden – particularly as she herself started with no skills or knowledge in this field.
“It all started with my grandfather and his wish to pass on a very special potato that had thrived within our family for five generations; it was an emotional journey to continue this legacy,”
Jade remembers. Her grandfather lost his garden in the 2011 Christchurch earthquake and feared his rare Maori potato would be lost with everything else in the devastating quake. For more than 100 years, the PeruPeru potato had been handed down from one generation to the next and he believed Jade was the person to take something he cherished and make it thrive.
Jade recalls what her grandfather told her and the story was so heartfelt and rich with her family’s history, she felt compelled to take it on: “He said his mother had fed the family with the potato in times of great need and that if I didn’t take them, he would have no-one to pass them onto. I told him this was too much responsibility, as I had not grown anything before, but he had faith in me to continue our history.”
The potato is symbolic of Jade’s family and their struggles and she admits this encouraged her,
“The heritage and roots of my family is precious to me and this meant a lot to them.”
The success of re-planting and saving the PeruPeru potato enabled Jade to make an emotional journey back to her grandfather’s, sowing the potato back into his garden; sparking her desire to continue with gardening and fuel her passion for working with the community.
“My grandfather was so grateful and it made me realise the importance of having the basics in a family and as I was already working with families in the community, I knew this would make a significant difference. I had the idea for Hand over a Hundy in my mind and for the past year had been thinking it over, but this propelled me to truly get started.”
It was from this emotional reunion with her grandfather and a year’s worth of ideas and work in the community, that award-winning and acclaimed Hand over a Hundy was officially born. Jade, a runner-up New Zealander of the Year recognised the opportunity to take her skills and knowledge and enable families to start the path to becoming self-sustaining and save them much needed money.
“I was working with a lot of young mothers, single parents and struggling families in my full-time job and witnessed first-hand the pressure they were under to make ends meet. I saw their big gardens and knew this was the way to help them. It starts with one small change and this can make a huge difference.”
After sitting down to dinner one evening, she discussed the idea with her husband, who encouraged her to put pen to paper and develop her ideas. “I knew that with a little encouragement, advice and the right tools, the people I was helping day to day, could help themselves and make this a reality.”
Interview with Jade Temepara, by Katie Byrne – novice gardener