‘Seeds of love:’ Homeless Maui woman feeds neighbors with garden

LAHAINA (HawaiiNewsNow) - A Maui woman is hoping to inspire others this Thanksgiving.

She wants to remind everyone to be thankful and generous – not just on the holiday – but all year long.

“Welcome to my garden,” said Jolene Rudolph.

Jolene doesn’t have much.

The place she calls home is hidden off Honoapiilani Highway and the Lahaina Bypass in an area known as “Cut Mountain.”

She lives under a tarp.

But she’s grateful to have a roof over her head and food in her belly she grew herself.

“I got more cherry tomatoes over here,” Jolene said. “They’re beautiful and they’re quite delicious.”

Her garden is abundant with eggplant, basil, pineapple, green beans, chives, papayas, squash, cantaloupe and more.

“I have strawberries in Lahaina!” Jolene shouted.

Jolene started growing her garden of love less than a year ago. It now feeds the entire encampment and everyone who stops by.

“It all started with just a little seed, and everyone told me I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t do it. You can’t do it,” she said.

She purchased that seed through Maui Rapid Response’s newly launched Kahua Card Program.

Fire survivors who aren’t receiving aid are gifted up to $1,100 a month on a prepaid card, which are funded entirely by donations.

“This garden is feeding ‘Cut Mountain’ right now. That garden was a pile of trash about eight months ago and now it is a garden that’s being shared,” said Nicole Huguenin, Maui Rapid Response Executive Director.

The Kahua Card Program launched seven months ago as a pilot with 20 people.

“Seventy-five percent of that first pilot group said that their mental health is better,” Huguenin said. “And when they say that their mental health is improved, then we can have these bigger conversations of the bigger lifts in their lives.”

Those enrolled can buy anything they want just no alcohol, or adult entertainment, and they can’t pull out cash.

Jolene was living unsheltered on Shaw Street when the fire broke out and barely escaped. She is grateful to be alive today.

“Aunty Jolene’s garden is one story of so many that we get to see every single day, and when people say to us, like they fight with us and say, especially the unsheltered are just causing problems and they’re criminals, we know the other side of that story,” said Huguenin.

Huguenin hopes more people donate or start similar programs to help solve Maui’s homeless crisis.