Napier Central: A decade of growth with T&G

At Garden to Table, we’re on a mission to help tamariki grow, harvest, prepare, and share fresh kai.

For the past 10 years, T&G - who are renowned for their delicious apples and fresh produce, have been enabling us to fulfill this mission.

Now, as we celebrate a decade of partnership together, we’re excited to share a series of stories that showcase the difference we’ve been able to make together for tamariki, their whānau, and hapori (communities) across Aotearoa. 

Since 2013, T&G (Aotearoa’s leading grower, distributor and exporter of premium fresh produce,) has been supporting the Garden to Table Trust. Over recent weeks, we’ve been overjoyed to celebrate our decade-long partnership together.  

Recently, our celebrations took us to the Hawke’s Bay, where we joined up with Napier Central School, who have been involved in Garden to Table for 5 years. 

Together, Napier Central ākonga (students) and the T&G team came together to experience the school’s Garden to Table programme up close and personal. 

They worked in groups - with each T&G representative buddying up with a group of students to work in the garden or kitchen. 

In the māra kai (garden), they planted blueberry seeds, which had kindly been donated by T&G. We love how the T&G team were able to share some of their knowledge about blueberries with the students as they planted! 

In the kīhini (kitchen), the tamariki and T&G team prepared silverbeet and kale (harvested straight from the garden) for a Vegetarian Sapasui.

They also removed the outer skins of broadbeans (that had been harvested and frozen earlier in the year) from their casing, for a brilliant bright green broadbean smash on croutons.

The T&G team loved the experience in the kitchen so much that some of them didn’t want to leave their workstations once all the food was prepped! 

They finished by sharing the lovingly prepared kai, and chatting about their shared experiences throughout the day.

The students showed great manaakitanga - including offering seconds to the visitors and adults before going in for more themselves.

At the end of the session, everyone was filled with joy and pride - having not only spent a lovely time together, but also knowing that this experience had left a positive impact on the ākonga (not to mention the delicious blueberries the tamariki and their school whānau will enjoy over summer). 

We also hear that many of the tamariki shared that they will be adding vermicelli noodles (which were used in the Sapasui) to their family’s shopping list next week, as they loved them so much!

Over the past decade, T&G’s support has been substantial - from sponsoring schools, to collaborating on educational resources, and getting stuck in alongside the students and sharing with them what it’s like to be a fruit or grower as your career.  

As a partner to Garden to Table, T&G demonstrates what a difference a values-aligned and committed relationship can achieve. Their support has ultimately enabled us to grow from delivering our food education programme in just 21 schools in 2013 (when our partnership began), to 300 schools across Aotearoa today. 

This celebration was a beautiful way to reflect on that, and all that lies ahead. 

Ko te manu e kai ana i te miro, nōna te ngahere. 

Ko te manu e kai ana i te mātauranga, nōna te ao.    

The meaning of this whakatuakī has been explained to us as, 'the bird who feasts on the berries, well theirs is the forest. But if you feast on the knowledge, yours is the world!'