{"id":196834,"date":"2024-05-05T08:00:22","date_gmt":"2024-05-05T18:00:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=196834"},"modified":"2024-05-03T21:30:23","modified_gmt":"2024-05-04T07:30:23","slug":"hawaii-cc-feeds-families-grows-farmers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2024\/05\/05\/hawaii-cc-feeds-families-grows-farmers\/","title":{"rendered":"Hawai\u02bbi <abbr>CC<\/abbr> feeds hungry families, grows future farmers"},"content":{"rendered":"<span class=\"span-reading-time rt-reading-time\" style=\"display: block;\"><span class=\"rt-label rt-prefix\">Reading time: <\/span> <span class=\"rt-time\"> 2<\/span> <span class=\"rt-label rt-postfix\">minutes<\/span><\/span><div class=\"responsive-video-wrap-post\"><figure class=\"wp-block-embed wp-block-embed-youtube is-type-video is-provider-youtube epyt-figure\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\"><div class=\"epyt-video-wrapper\"><iframe  id=\"_ytid_18576\"  width=\"620\" height=\"349\"  data-origwidth=\"620\" data-origheight=\"349\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/eDp1oyOvE9o?enablejsapi=1&origin=https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu&rel=0&autoplay=0&cc_load_policy=0&cc_lang_pref=&iv_load_policy=1&loop=0&fs=1&playsinline=0&autohide=2&theme=dark&color=red&controls=1&disablekb=0&\" class=\"__youtube_prefs__  no-lazyload\" title=\"Hawai\u02bbi CC feeds hungry families, grows future farmers\"  allow=\"fullscreen; accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen data-no-lazy=\"1\" data-skipgform_ajax_framebjll=\"\"><\/iframe><\/div><\/div><\/figure><\/div>\n<p>On a glorious, sunny April morning in <span aria-label=\"Pepeekeo\">Pepe&#699;ekeo<\/span> on the Hamakua Coast of <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Hawai&#699;i<\/span> Island, about 15 <a href=\"https:\/\/hawaii.hawaii.edu\/\"><span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Hawai&#699;i<\/span> Community College<\/a> students harvested more than 50 <abbr title=\"pounds\">lbs<\/abbr>. of bananas to feed the community.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_196923\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-196923\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/hawaii-ag-food-basket-1.jpg\" alt=\"Person holding a bunch of bananas and flashing shaka\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" class=\"size-full wp-image-196923\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/hawaii-ag-food-basket-1.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/hawaii-ag-food-basket-1-130x130.jpg 130w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-196923\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Kristen Decoito<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>They made quick work of chopping down the banana trees and reducing them to mulch, before washing, drying and packing the fruit at the college\u2019s 3-acre farm Mauliola (thriving or healthy) and then loading it into their van for delivery in Hilo.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;It&#8217;s been actually life changing to have a program in which you&#8217;re hands-on every single day,&rdquo; said student Kristen Decoito.<\/p>\n<p>Since 2023, <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Hawai&#699;i<\/span> <abbr title=\"Community College\">CC<\/abbr> has donated more than 1,000 lbs of fresh produce from Mauliola to the <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Hawai&#699;i<\/span> Food Basket.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Our mission is to end hunger in <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Hawai&#699;i<\/span> County on <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Hawai&#699;i<\/span> Island,&rdquo; said Enola Kaneta, director of operations for <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Hawai&#699;i<\/span> Food Basket. &ldquo;<span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Hawai&#699;i<\/span> Community College actually helps us to do that by providing fresh produce and vegetables to our community members.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<h2>Feeding hungry families<\/h2>\n<figure id=\"attachment_196924\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-196924\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/hawaii-ag-food-basket-2.jpg\" alt=\"Students washing produce\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" class=\"size-full wp-image-196924\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/hawaii-ag-food-basket-2.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/hawaii-ag-food-basket-2-130x130.jpg 130w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-196924\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Students prepare produce for transport<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>In 2021, the college finalized a four-year agreement with landowner Honua Ola Bioenergy to farm and teach agriculture at Mauliola, as long as 90% of the food produced there goes to feed hungry families. The land the college has cleared&#8212;armed with weed wackers and lots of sweat equity&#8212;stands in stark contrast to the tall grasses and trees surrounding the farm.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;To have a project this big&#8212;three acres, 40 &#699;ulu (breadfruit) trees, maybe 60 banana trees in the ground&#8212;is kind of unprecedented for a small program like ours,&rdquo; said Assistant Professor Lew Nakamura.<\/p>\n<p>Kaneta said, &ldquo;A lot of our emergency food customers actually come up daily for us and they love to have fresh produce that they can actually then go home and give their families and their keiki.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Nakamura is excited to be able to train more students who can grow food for the community and teach others to do it, too.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Where there is hunger, we need farmers. We need people to feed the community, and it&#8217;s good because we know if it&#8217;s grown here that it&#8217;s healthy, that it&#8217;s sustainable, and we know exactly the source of which it came from,&rdquo; said Decoito, who will graduate with her associate\u2019s degree in May and plans to pursue a teaching degree.<\/p>\n<h2>Theft blunts impact<\/h2>\n<p>Nakamura said there will be even more impact next year when the &#699;ulu starts to ripen. However, recurring agricultural theft is already blunting Mauliola\u2019s impact.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;We&#8217;ve had probably over 300 pounds, or at least 30 bunches of bananas, stolen from us from this parcel,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Big problem&#8212;people taking food away from people who actually need it.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s a problem harming other farmers across the island. Nakamura said he is reaching out to the community to report any agricultural thefts they may witness.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_196925\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-196925\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/hawaii-ag-food-basket-3-300x169.jpg\" alt=\"Person beside boxes of bananas and other fruits\" width=\"300\" height=\"169\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-196925\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/hawaii-ag-food-basket-3-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/hawaii-ag-food-basket-3-130x73.jpg 130w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/hawaii-ag-food-basket-3.jpg 676w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-196925\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Food Basket<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>In the meantime, <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Hawai&#699;i<\/span> <abbr>CC<\/abbr> will be doing its part to produce the farmers the state needs, such as first year student David Marquis, who proudly posed with a heavy stalk of bananas he had just chopped down with a machete.<\/p>\n<p>Marquis said, &ldquo;I hope to start a small farm and become food sufficient and help other people too to obtain self sufficiency in food.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Decoito added, &ldquo;I just want people to understand that food is a very critical topic here in <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Hawai&#699;i<\/span>, and without farmers, we&#8217;re going to have a lot more problems in the future.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p><em>&#8212;by Kelli Abe Trifonovitch<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Almost all of the food raised at <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Hawai&#699;i<\/span> <abbr>CC<\/abbr>\u2019s farm goes to the <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Hawai&#699;i<\/span> Food Basket.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25,12],"tags":[222,61,71,56],"class_list":["post-196834","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academic-news","category-video","tag-agriculture","tag-hawaii-community-college","tag-uh-community-colleges","tag-video-2","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196834","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=196834"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196834\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":196927,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196834\/revisions\/196927"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=196834"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=196834"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=196834"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}