Category Archives: Community

Adopt-a-Class, Community, Education, Schools

In Good Standing!

I was so happy to receive this email a couple days ago. It’s from Lehua Veincent, principal of Keaukaha Elementary School. That’s the school we work with through our Adopt-a-Class program.

Kumu Lehua announced:  It is my honor and my privilege to announce that Keaukaha School has MET Adequate Yearly Progress for SY 2007-2008 as announced by the Department of Education yesterday.

This second year progress has moved the school out of RESTRUCTURING STATUS into IN GOOD STANDING, UNCONDITIONAL!

On Friday, the local paper had a sub-headline: “31 of 42 Big Island Schools fail to make the grade.” Keaukaha School was one of the 11 schools that passed.

For as long as I can remember, 40 years at least, it was assumed that Keaukaha kids had a hard time doing schoolwork. Or maybe some people were assuming even worse.

That has now changed forever. Keaukaha Elementary has proved itself a role model as measured by modern methods.

Last year at this time, I heard whisperings that Keaukaha Elementary School had made progress with their ratings, and that with one more year of good results it would be removed from the list of schools to be restructured. Was it true? People were asking: could it be? Some were in tears.

A year later, and we have this incredible announcement.

It is much, much more than just an announcement. I feel like a big weight has been lifted from my shoulders. I can only imagine what it must mean to the community, teachers, staff and especially to KUMU LEHUA.

Read the whole announcement, from Kumu Lehua Veincent, below:

To members of the Keaukaha Community Association, Keaukaha School Foundation, Keaukaha Parent-Teacher Association, Keaukaha School Community Council, Queen Lili’uokalani Children’s Center, Kamehameha Schools, Ke Ana La’ahana PCS, Hamakua Springs, INPEACE/SPARK, and UH-Department of Education!

It is my honor and my privilege to announce that Keaukaha School has MET Adequate Yearly Progress for SY 2007-2008 as announced by the Department of Education yesterday.

This second year progress has moved the school out of RESTRUCTURING STATUS into IN GOOD STANDING, UNCONDITIONAL!

We take one year at a time with new students, new attitudes, new behaviors, and new ways of learning guiding our next action step. We continue to build upon this dualistic approach to learning in not only maintaining our stance in achieving the standards set forth in our educational realm but also a standard set forth by our own kupuna, ‘ohana, and the history of a unique place of setting – our beloved Keaukaha. We move forward by looking backwards! We move forward with humility yet with focus and strength! We move forward with pono!

As business and educational partners to Keaukaha School, you have all kokua by embracing Keaukaha School and the many ways of learning that honors genealogy, history, and place! Your unconditional aloha to all of our keiki here at Keaukaha School is acknowledged and appreciated! The cliché that “we couldn’t have done it without you” extends farther — your support establishes the foundation from which learning takes place and empowers a community to do what is pono for all that live here!

I honor you, our faculty and staff, our ‘ohana, and our community.

Please share with your constituents at your respective agencies this voice of aloha and mahalo!

Me ke aloha nui ia ‘oukou a pau!

na’u, na Kumu Lehua

Adopt-a-Class, Community

Ripples for Education

It’s a cliché, but it’s true that you really never know what will happen when you drop a tiny pebble into a pond.

Since Richard first heard that Keaukaha Elementary School didn’t have enough money to take its students on field trips, and set up the Adopt-a-Class program to send the students to Hilo’s ‘Imiloa Astronomy Center, the ripples have been getting bigger and bigger.

The community stepped up to that call, and paid for buses and admission fees so that Keaukaha kids got to take some amazing field trips this school year.

Ka‘iu Kimura, Assistant Director of ‘Imiloa, says that the Adopt-a-Class program has taken off beyond just Keaukaha now. “Some of our members at  ‘Imiloa have adopted other classes now,” she says. “It’s the coconut wireless. People have called and asked, ‘How can we sponsor Pa‘auilo School,’ for instance. It’s infectious.”

And then Gordon and Betty Moore got involved. Gordon was co-founder of Intel Corporation, and he and his wife now divide their time between the San Francisco Bay Area and the Big Island.

Kimura says they’d visited ‘Imiloa (“under the radar; they don’t like recognition”) and liked what they saw. One of their people contacted ‘Imiloa and heard about Richard Ha and the Adopt-a-Class program.

He invited ‘Imiloa to submit a proposal to the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation to expand the program so that 50 percent of all school students on the Big Island could visit ‘Imiloa.

They did. It was accepted.

And then, ripple ripple, Kimura says that when ‘Imiloa sought bids for buses to transport the students – the biggest expense – they found that “bus companies are so willing to work with us that we think we’re going to be able to expand it from 50 to 100 percent of the students on the Big Island.”

That’s every Big Island student in public, charter and private school having the opportunity to learn about science and astronomy and native Hawaiian culture at ‘Imiloa. All because some people felt bad that students in Keaukaha didn’t have money for field trips and did something about it.

“Basically it means that for the next two years,” explains Kimura, “we will service 15,000 Big Island students in grades K through 12.”

The Moore Foundation grant has a matching requirement for the second year, so ‘Imiloa will be launching a campaign to help fund the second year soon. And ‘Imiloa is bringing in an outside evaluator in hopes of finding a way to expand the school visits beyond the two years, so it can offer them on a perpetual basis.

The Moore Foundation’s grant technician told her they are now considering having the Moore Foundation start funding kids in the San Francisco Bay Area to go to science centers near them, too.

“I just want to mahalo that core group that put together that Keaukaha opportunity,” says Kimura. “Not only the Moore Foundation, but also the local community people who really liked that idea and were willing to support schools in their own area.”

“It’s resonated out from Keaukaha to the whole island to the Bay Area,” she says. “It’s been an exciting thing to see it grow.”

Community, Renewable Energy Sources, Sustainability

Festival Update

The Malama ‘Aina Festival is starting to get traction.

Roland Torres, executive producer of Kama‘aina Backroads, will be working with us. When I told him that the festival will focus on Hawaiian culture and then, in that context, alternate energy, food producing, recycling and waste management methods, he told me this aligned with his personal philosophy and that he wanted to get involved.

We cannot be more happy that he has agreed to join us. His Kama‘aina Backroads program on OC 16 is uniquely local Hawaiian style.

Since the Hawai‘i Island energy forum this past Friday, I’ve had many calls from people with alternative energy projects. One interesting wind energy project involves a wind energy machine that spins like a top.

I talked to the H2-technologies people yesterday and in addition to producing hydrogen for transportation, they can produce ammonia for fertilizer. If this works, it will be a big deal for agriculture in Hawai‘i. This will help some of us to continually produce food intensively.

We will be asking auto companies with alternative energy cars and trucks to come and put some on display. One car company committed to display and even volunteered to become a sponsor.

Roland Torres has a mock-up website he will use to keep everyone up to speed on the festival as November 7th and 8th approach.  We’ll keep you posted here, too.

Community, Hamakua Coast, Water

Andrade Camp Water System

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Yesterday was the groundbreaking and dedication for Andrade Camp’s new water system.

It’s hard to believe that we started this project – to help transition our neighbors at Andrade Camp from a private, sugar plantation water system to a standard county water system – five years ago.

The 31 households in Andrade Camp, next to the farm, are made up of former sugar plantation employees. They have always paid a flat rate for their water usage, $8/month, and the sugar company took care of all maintenance on the water lines.

When C. Brewer sold all its sugar lands a few years back, the company told residents they’d have to take over the private water system and start paying the county for their water use.  The company went down to just six workers doing all the maintenance on their lands, and by the end, there was only one executive on O‘ahu making all the money decisions.

Fortunately, on the ground, it was John Cross that was in charge. I’ve known John for 15 years and he is one of the good guys. He was the one who decided to put in individual meters at each house. He did everything he could to make sure the private water system was operational. Knowing what was happening at the company’s O‘ahu headquarters, I’m sure John did some pretty creative accounting to make sure everything was going to work out for Andrade Camp.

It was quite a process to transition this small neighborhood from that point to the county water system. We wanted to help, and formed the Andrade Camp Association. Roy Oka was elected president. Myself, Rick Ryken and Richard Matsunami were on the board of directors.

We asked for a meeting with Water Supply.  Representative Dwight Takamine, John Cross, who represented the sugar company, Milton Pavao, the boss of the key Water Supply personnel and the Andrade Camp Association Board attended this important meeting.

 

After that meeting we recruited Roy Takemoto, from the County Planning Department and Attorney Alan Okamoto, who had experience with Hamakua Sugar and transition issues. Dayday Hopkins and Jane Horike also helped us organize ourselves.

Dwight Takamine was the driving force behind this project. There were several times that it looked like the project had died, but he would not give up. I’ll bet he called more than 15 meetings in order to keep the process moving. He is very good at getting the best out of people. He was able to keep everyone on the same page and working together.

He insists on sharing the credit with everyone. But all of us who were involved from the start know that it was Dwight who made it happen.

I’ve known him for as long as I’ve been farming in Pepe‘ekeo. He does this kind of collaborative process with all the groups on the Hamakua Coast. I respect and admire people who are doers, not talkers.

I am not a political person. But based on my observation over the past 15 years, I support Dwight one hundred percent in his run for the Senate.

Fast forward to yesterday, the groundbreaking and dedication ceremony for the new Andrade Camp water system.

Here is the press release about yesterday’s event:

Pepe‘ekeo Community Celebrates Successful Ground Breaking for Andrade Camp Water System

Pepe‘ekeo, Hawai‘i – June 10, 2008 – A gorgeous summer day unfolded for Pepe‘ekeo Community as they celebrated the ground breaking of the Andrade Camp Water System Improvements Project.  A little fewer than 100 people gathered on Andrade Camp Road to hear their partners’ celebratory comments and witness the symbolic groundbreaking.

USDA Rural Development State Director Lorraine Shin commented this morning, “Our goal at USDA is to increase economic opportunity and improve the quality of life for people in rural America.  Attainment of this goal is evident today with Andrade Camp and our partners from all levels of government and community.”  The Andrade Camp Water System Improvement Project will successfully transition their private plantation era water system to a modern County water system.

Deputy Manager Quirino Antonio spoke on behalf of the Water Board, County of Hawaii– “This project demonstrates that together we can make a difference.  Together we can map a better future for generations to come.”

The blessing was held on Andrade Camp Road in Pepe‘ekeo this morning.  A lunch celebration followed at the Kula‘imano Community Center.  Many partners spoke during the luncheon about the sincere efforts of all involved.  Representative Dwight Takamine closed the celebration with, “This effort surrounding this small community was made possible because each and every partner held the best interest of Andrade Camp Residents at heart.  Thank you all, sincerely.”

Construction begins June 12, 2008.

Community, Education, Sustainability

Sustaining

Yesterday was very interesting. I drove from Hilo to the Outrigger Hotel at Keauhou to give a thirty minute speech about sustainable agriculture at the third annual Kuleana Business Conference and Trade Show. It was part of the Kona Earth Festival, which has the slogan: “Island Self-Reliance Through Sustainable Living.”

A native Hawaiian speaker described us as floating in the middle of the Pacific Ocean on a little life raft. It is hopeful to see that people are coming together to find ways to make our lives here sustainable.

Right after my talk, I was interviewed for a video documentary about sustainable agriculture issues, then participated in a 30-minute talk-story session on the radio station Lava 105. It was all very interesting and promising.

The most interesting thing I did yesterday, though, was a talk-story session with the interns in the Keaholoa STEM program at UH Hilo, which I rushed back to Hilo for. The students are preparing for next week’s ho‘ike, where they will report on their research projects. Some of the projects: the study of coral health at Vacation Land; alternate insect pollinators, other than bees, of the Big Island; the cultivation of edible limu, and other interesting topics.

These are our best and brightest native Hawaiian students of Science, Tech, Engineering and Math. We had a short discussion about bio fuels, genetically modified organisms, hydro- and geothermal power. It doesn’t get better than talking with the students. It was very stimulating and I am left with an encouraging feeling that our future is in good hands.

Community, Schools, Tomatoes

Tomatoes for Education

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I’ve been reflecting on what it means to participate at the Kino‘ole Street Farmers Market.

The most touching and rewarding moments have been when teachers I’ve never met have come up and thanked us for giving them Hamakua Springs tomatoes.

It was especially meaningful to them, I think, at a time when newspapers were reporting that this or that school was in danger of restructuring under the No-Child-Left-Behind federal program. We knew morale was at a low point, and that was exactly when we wanted to make clear that we thought they were the greatest!

The gift was not much monetarily, but we felt the gesture was important. We feel strongly that teaching is the most important profession. And we wanted to tell each teacher that we support them 100 percent.

I am really partial toward elementary school teachers. The most impressionable time of my life was when I was between 8 and eleven years old. That’s when my belief system was formed and it has lasted all my life.

This is what motivated us to do the Adopt-a-Class project at Keaukaha Elementary School, and it’s why we support teachers like Karyl Ah Hee at Kaumana Elementary School.

Education really is the great equalizer.

On the east side of the Big Island we have disproportionately more than the state’s average of low income families.

Hawai‘i Community College Chancellor Rockne Freitas explains it best: He says that the best predictor of children’s success is the family’s household income. And the best predictor of a higher household income is education.

Hawai‘i Community College is one of the most important institutions of higher learning here in East Hawai‘i, because it has “open enrollment.” In other words, there isn’t an entrance exam to keep students out. Also, class credits are transferrable to the University of Hawai‘i at Hilo.

This is the pathway to higher education for students who might not otherwise have qualified.

HCC was ranked thirteenth in the nation at bringing higher education to its students. This in spite of having the most dilapidated classrooms and structures in the entire community college system.

This is an extremely big deal, and Chancellor Freitas and his staff deserve a big round of applause. These people are doers, not talkers. We respect that!

Community, Where We Live

Merrie Monarch Week 2008

I love Merrie Monarch week in Hilo.

Hilo absolutely shines every year during Merrie Monarch week, which started Sunday. Hula dancers and hula fans

descend upon this town from the other islands, from other states and even from other countries, for our annual, huge, week-long celebration of hula.

During Merrie Monarch week every year, when there are so many more Hawaiian people than usual around town, I feel like I can squint my eyes and almost see what it was like here a couple hundred years ago.

And there is hula everywhere. Here is the halau of well-known California kumu Mark Keali‘i Ho‘omalu practicing outside one of the hotels on Banyan Drive yesterday morning.

And I love the craft fairs with beautiful Hawaiian products, and the food, and the demonstrations and talks and everything Hawaiian.

Here are some of the other things I really enjoy about Merrie Monarch week in Hilo:

• Hearing lots of people around town speaking Hawaiian

• Hula performances everywhere!

• Seeing all the beautiful, woven lauhala hats people wear

• People wearing amazing flowers in their hair. And lei. And beautiful, genuine smiles.

• Seeing the living traditions that people still practice. Such as this hula by Halau O Kekuhi, who performed at Wednesday night’s Ho‘ike, a free performance every year during Merrie Monarch week. It was a thrill to see this renowned halau dancing in the open-air Edith Kanaka‘ole Stadium with Mauna Kea behind them.

• Hearing Hawaiian music

• Seeing Uncle George Na‘ope around town

• People who spontaneously stand up and do a hula because they’ve just gotta dance!

This was unplanned. This woman in the audience was sitting, doing the hula from her chair as she enjoyed this familiar anthem to Hilo, and then just cast aside her cane — really — and got up and danced, to great applause. It was wonderful.

• Seeing cultural traditions survive, and thrive

• Little 3-year-olds up on stage with their elders, dancing hula

• Seeing how many people—young, old, male, female—appreciate hula

At the Hilo Hawaiian on Tuesday, Iwalani Kalima’s halau performed. At one point, the students kneeled on the stage and pulled two sticks, which they would use in the upcoming hula, out of their waistbands. The kumu (teacher), Iwalani, was at the ipu, but suddenly she stood up and climbed on the stage.

She kneeled down next to the tiniest girl — could she even have been 3 years old? Maybe only 2 — and started fumbling around with the girl’s outer skirt. “She lost hers,” she finally said to the audience, and we realized the girl’s sticks had slipped inside her costume. Iwalani had to lift up the outer skirts and hunt around inside the elaborate costume for the little girl’s sticks. It went on for quite some time and was cute and hilarious. Here’s that performance.

There are a hundred other stories and photos and videos I could show you. Search “Merrie Monarch” at YouTube if you’d like to see more.

You can also watch tonight’s Merrie Monarch program live on KITV’s website. It’s Hula Kahiko, traditional hula, and it runs from 6 p.m. to 11

p.m. The final night, which will also stream live on KITV, is tomorrow and runs from 5:30 p.m. to midnight.

And then you can start making your plans to be here in Hilo next year!

Community

Feeling Good

Whole Foods Buyers Jeff Biddle and Claire Sullivan visited us yesterday, and we spent more time talking about our interaction with the community than about business. We talked about Chef Alan and the Keaukaha School sixth graders, the Andrade Camp water line project, our Tomato Recipe Contest, the farm’s “hanai”-ing Nawahiokalaniopu‘u School, and our plan to grow more products that make up a balanced diet in order to benefit our community. And, oh yes, our hydroelectric project.

It’s not just about our farm—it’s about the community. It’s all of us. You know how sometimes it’s just not appropriate to discuss these kinds of things? With Jeff and Claire, they were the most comfortable things in the world to talk about. We all need to take care of each other, and from my conversation with them I got the impression that Whole Foods feels that way, too.

Although we did do the business thing—Whole Foods knows we are all about good quality, dependability, food safety, etc.—the more important, and most satisfying, thing today was talking about how we interact with our community.

Then in the afternoon it was on to a meeting with the staff of Kalaniana‘ole School, where I volunteered to coordinate the Hamakua Coast farmers who will set up booths at their fundraising bazaar.

I stepped out of that meeting to participate in a phone conference that Dwight Takamine arranged with the USDA, Board of Water Supply, officers of the Andrade Camp Community Association, Senator Inouye’s liaison and a consultant to the Board of Water Supply. We discussed the final steps that will occur before construction begins to replace the old, plantation-era water system of the tiny former sugar plantation camp next to the farm with a new, county water system.

It’s been an amazing process that started a couple of years ago, and with everyone’s cooperation we have been able to make it work. At our next meeting we will be planning the groundbreaking ceremony.

I stepped back into the Kalaniana‘ole School meeting, and then home to see Keaukaha Elementary School on the PBS program “E Ola Pono.”

It all makes work fun, and it sure made for a “good feeling” kind of a day.

Adopt-a-Class, Alan Wong, Community, Tomatoes

Chapter 3 – Keaukaha Morning

We watched Chef Alan Wong cook something up the other morning at Keaukaha Elementary School in Hilo.

He was there in conjunction with Richard’s Adopt-a-Class program. Chef Alan had adopted the 6th grade, and then asked if he could go speak to them. So when he was in town last week, he did.

The students chanted a Hawaiian welcome to him.

That crew is from PBS. They filmed the whole morning for a Chefs Afield episode they’re doing about Alan Wong, which will air sometime next year.

He is just wonderful with kids. Very down-to-earth, very open, very real. He’s a natural-born teacher and the students really responded. They were amazingly engaged.

He and Richard both spoke to the kids. Chef Alan told them, “If Alan Wong can do it, you can do it.” He told them that he grow up thinking salad dressing came out of a bottle. They, too, can achieve anything, he told them. “You just have to work hard,” he said.

Richard told them that when he was their age they were kind of poor, and they had a picnic table in the kitchen for their dinner table. He said his father would pound on that table and say, “Not ‘no can.’ ‘CAN!” Richard told those kids they could do anything they want.

Chef Alan showed the students how to make mayonnaise and also a li hing mui salad dressing. As he cooked in front of them, he kept pointing out what part of what he was doing had to do with reading, and what was math, and what was science, and made the point that if they wanted to do that kind of job they’d better stay in school.

 

When he started, he asked how many kids hated tomatoes and most raised their hands. By the time he did a taste test with them – they tasted a piece of Brand X tomato, and then a piece of a Hamakua Springs tomato – they were believers. At the end, some of his people walked around with platters of cut-up heirloom tomatoes and the kids were actually lunging for them, trying to get tomatoes to eat.

Afterward, some of the students showed Richard and Chef Alan their kalo (taro) patch.

The principal of the school told me they never get people of such celebrity speaking to, and inspiring, their kids. Richard says that one of the teachers told him, too, that no one comes to Keaukaha Elementary to tell the kids they too can do it. He says the teacher had tears in her eyes when she told him that.

It was really an incredible morning.

Alan Wong, Community, Food and Drink

Chapter 2 – The Cookout

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If the Tomato Recipe Contest was Chapter 1 in our interesting times of this past week, here’s Chapter 2.

You already read about Chef Alan Wong judging at our Tomato Recipe Contest the other day. Now let me tell you about something else he just did in conjunction with the farm.

Chef Alan, who is based on O‘ahu, regularly buys produce for his restaurants from Hamakua Springs as well as a few other farms here on the Hamakua Coast. And every year he flies his staff here – chefs and other staff from his different restaurants – for a couple days.

The purpose of his annual visit? To visit the farms, and the farmers, who produce the fresh, delicious ingredients they work with every day. Chef Alan has a personal connection with the sources of his food, and he wants his chefs and other employees to know where the food comes from too, and who grows it, and how, so they can take that knowledge back with them. So they visit each farm, see how the food grows and get to know the farmers a little.

Then the culmination of their visit is that all his restaurant people and all the farmers gather at Hamakua Springs for an absolutely world-class Alan Wong cookout using ingredients from those local farms. It’s Chef Alan’s unbelievably gracious and generous (and delicious) thank you to the farmers.

This year for the first time there was also an imu. On Monday afternoon Kimo and his good friend Al Jardine prepared the imu, filling it with pig, turkey, beef, taro, sweet potato and more.

Chef Alan put some nontraditional ingredients in the imu, too. Lesley Hill and Michael Crowell, of nearby Wailea Ag Group,
brought big long “trunks” of heart of palm to put into the imu as an
experiment (they were delicious).

Here’s how it looked after they opened the imu the next day and were taking the meat and other foods out. That’s Mrs. Ha there, Richard’s mom. She’s great.

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Here they are, chopping up the cooked meat. That’s Al in the blue shirt and Kimo in the red.

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We all gathered at the farm’s recently reclaimed green shack. We’ll tell you more about that historical building on the edge of Hamakua Springs later – it has a story, too. For now we’ll just say that it was the HQ for food preparation. See all the beautiful old photos of former plantation days? They tell some of the story of what plantation life used to look like.

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So everybody gathered the food from the imu and took it inside, where tables were set up and Chef Alan and staff cooked and set up the long serving table. There were some amazing dishes made with Hawai’i Island Goat Dairy goat cheese and local Hamakua Mushrooms, and Ka’u coffee and Big Island Candies and more.

It is absolutely amazing what Chef Alan can do on a portable gas burner.

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This was a shrimp, olive and tomato concoction. Is your mouth watering?

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The serving line. There was even more food around on the other side, too, that doesn’t show here.

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Richard thanked everyone for being there and talked about why Alan had brought us together, and then Richard’s grandson Kapono said a blessing in Hawaiian and English. And then we ate. And ate.

There was also a PBS crew present, taping the whole thing. They were following Chef Alan around taping a Chefs Afield program, which will air next year. There was a lot going on.

It was really a terrific evening. From the reason we were all there – because Chef Alan has such respect for, and such connections with, his farmer friends, and thanks them with such an incredible feast – to the new connections as restaurant folk and farmers got to know and appreciate each other, talk story and eat and laugh together. It was a fun, delicious, boisterous event where everybody seemed to be enjoy the food, the setting outside under the big tent, talking, the company.

A huge mahalo to Chef Alan and all his employees, who prepared such a tremendous feast and also created such a wonderful, memorable gathering.