Find: Meals | Services | Housing | Supplies | Volunteers Google Search
Record Details:
Ku'ia Agricultural Education Center & Hawaii Farmers Union
Organization:Facility Type: Walk-in Resource
Status: Open
Address:
Community Center: Na Aikane O Maui. 562 Front Street Lahaina , Hawaii 96761
Farm: ahupua'a of Ku'ia on Legacy Lands of Keli'i Kulani
Lahaina, HI 00000
Population Served:
Shelters Served:
| Region: | |
|---|---|
| County/Parish: |
Website: https://www.ksbe.edu/ainaulu
This organization provides Temporary or Permanent Service? Temporary
Notes:
mauiboi83 at gmail dot com
Community Center
https://hfuuhi.org/chapters/maui-lahaina-chapter/
Chapter Notes: Lahaina chapter is on Maui's west side.
Meeting Schedule: Last Monday of each month.
Meeting Time: Doors open at 5:30pm. Pre-meal pule begins around 6pm followed by member announcements. The meetings typically conclude before 8pm.
Meeting Location: Na Aikane O Maui. 562 Front Street Lahaina , Hawaii 96761
Interview with the founder:
My name is Kaipo Kekona, I'm 38 years old. I was born and raised here on Maui in Lāhainā. I now manage a 12.5 acre farm site known as Ku'ia Agricultural Education Center in the ahupua'a of Ku'ia on Legacy Lands of Keli'i Kulani. Part of our mission for our site there is to not only reclaim space as a native historical food property, but also introduce to our community the practices that would encourage a healthier food system and soils for us to be maintaining in our community. We also hope to fulfill demands in our schools and our senior citizen centers and housing. That's what we want to be able to provide. We also have put aside spaces for people in our community that share an interest to begin a farming spot there, and we make this all possible through a collaboration with the Hawai'i Farmer's Union United, with their foundation, 501c3 nonprofit arm, and Kamehameha Schools, the owners of the property where we are located. I am the Chair of the Lāhainā Chapter with the Hawai'i Farmer's Union United.
I also serve as Po'o for the Aha Moku Ka'anapali Council for the district of Ka'anapali Moku that goes from Pu’u Keka'a to Makamaka'ole. In this position, we advocate for generational resource management practices, and in that manner, we identify different resources methods that we need to consider, implementing more traditional management practices. I also donate my time here at Na ‘Aikane o Maui's Cultural Center. That's my own little side passion; I am a father of four children as well.
Going back a year ago, to pre-COVID times, can you walk me through what was happening and share a little about your experience as the pandemic unfolded?
So for us, back when life was what life was before COVID, (I'll never be able to say life is regular), but when life was what it was, as far as what I do with ag and culture and traditions we always felt like we were on that tipping point where you're either gonna move forward and save it and restore, (I'm not even sure restore is the proper word) or fall the other way and lose it all. That was life in itself. The more we decided to just stay in the path that we were in, the more we would continue to lose. So, we always were trying to make the effort of consciously choosing our path. I think we're all on a path that we don't pay much attention to, and then when we do pay attention, we realize really quickly, that we want to get off of that path.
So, I've been farming before COVID, and I found myself in the agricultural department or industry since I was in high school, picking pineapples and working on farms on the Big Island when I stayed there for about two years. Always farming and always with the same mission to try and learn how to grow good, healthy food and feed our community. I got the opportunity to farm at Ku’ia, we made those efforts and we were working with the schools and doing large-scale volunteer programs.
We utilize organic growing practices, you know, regenerative farming practices, taking the effort to collect indigenous microbes and put that back into the soil to help facilitate that healing process for our soils before planting. That's what we were doing; that's what our mission was. And then COVID hit.
Bouncing back, we're taking in all those old sayings that you hear when you're a kid growing up, you know, "it's not about how you fall, it's about how you get up."
Mind you, we also went through a few natural disasters in this short timeframe as well. Hurricane Lane came through in 2018 and we had a huge fire in the middle of the night. We lost a lot of acreage and our farm got totally scorched and burned away and we were only a year in. Bouncing back, we're taking in all those old sayings that you hear when you're a kid growing up, you know, "it's not about how you fall, it's about how you get up." I mean, we couldn’t give up, this was a challenge, so we'd go at it again.
Then in March 2020, COVID struck. We stopped all our programs, obviously. Now our farm is down to being operated by just three of us with no volunteer help. Volunteers are our big thing. I don't even like calling them volunteers, It's everyone's farm at that point because you come and work on it and it's designed to be for our community. So, if you're from a community and you're working on that farm, it's no longer the educational site, it's your farm. When people show up to work with us, it's a big difference. It's a big help and we lost a lot of that. So, we found ourselves trying to find avenues where we could still fit in. We appreciate being with, helping, and working with our community. When that was taken away, we were like, well, what are we going to do for our community? They're always there for us. How are we going to be there for them, even more now?
Na ‘Aikane at Maui Cultural Center in Lāhainā, photographed by Angie Diaz
Na ‘Aikane at Maui Cultural Center in Lāhainā, photographed by Angie Diaz
A lot of our farmers didn't know what to do with the excess food that they had while at the same time adjusting to the loss of income.
So, we started working with Na ‘Aikane at Maui Cultural Center and they had a program going with QLCC, Queen Lili'uokalani Trust. And they were doing CSA boxes and we were gathering produce through different farms and stores, and distributing boxes to our community. So, I took on from Honokōwai to Honokōhau, and distributed boxes throughout that area. We did that for about six months, just that program. That was one adjustment. We also found other collaborations, because that we had this need to support and keep our local farmers going. A lot of farmers were growing crops for an industry that was no longer present- the “tourist industry.”
When that wasn't there, a lot of our farmers didn't know what to do with the excess food that they had while at the same time adjusting to the loss of income. That was another thing that we had to consider and figure out is- how are we going to help those guys stay afloat? Luckily for us, we already have a strong backing and support with Kamehameha Schools and HFUU. So that's how we're able to stay there. Between our two organizations, we have a foundation to stand on that will keep us going for a little while, you know, a few years more,
We definitely are working on financial profile expansions. Our farm will take a while to be able to produce so much to sustain itself. So, we needed to find sources to help us sustain ourselves as we develop our farm. So, we have that, but our other farmers don't have it. And that's a big difference already. When we did that, we found Yayoi Hara. She is the daughter of Reverend Hara in Lāhainā's Jodo Mission, and she had a passion to open up a farmer's market during this time. She came to us to find support in helping her promote it, get in touch with farmers, recruitment, and all that kind of stuff. So, we partnered up with her in providing a farmer's market that we still are operating now, every second and last Thursday of the month.
With our Hawai’i Farmer's Union Foundation, we went out and got some other emergency grants available through the CARES Act funds program. And we got one through OHA and one through the Maui County Strong Fund. We catered to our first responders with programs that we manage at our farmer's market. We said, “Hey, with this money, let's make a win-win situation here. Let's cater to our community that is in need and stretched thin, and let's also cater to our farmers which are stretched thin as well.” We developed a program where we made scrips, for the people in this program to go and buy any fresh produce out of our market, which really helped our farmers a lot too.
I’m finding that the farmers that we do have are really strapped and don’t have the time available to be a part of an organization, you know?
lahaina farm-17_websize.jpg
Ku'ia Agricultural Education Center photographed by Angie Diaz
I had no idea that you were doing so much it's really incredible. That farmer's market is amazing! You talked about some of the vulnerabilities: that turning point for farmers who had crops that were for the hotels and the need to pivot to find a market, and Lāhainā had a need for a venue to sell fresh local food. Are there other food system vulnerabilities that were exposed to you during this time?
One thing that I want to mention is our community’s dependence on imports. Being in the Farmer's Union for quite some time now and trying to develop a Lāhainā Chapter, I’m finding that the farmers that we do have are really strapped and don’t have the time available to be a part of an organization, you know? Also, there's not much other farming that's specifically catering to the local community, although we have a lot of good gardens going.
When that shut down came, I started watching the stores. Our grocery sections, our vegetable section started to shrink. You'd see a table disappear. Then they narrow it down a little, consolidate, make it more clean and nice, and then another table disappeared. I started thinking, oh, it's only a matter of time before the cost is going to go up really high and it's going to get desperate in town. I'm starting to think for the worst of it, of course, but we held through so far and it seems like we're picking up a lot quicker than everybody predicted we would, back into a regular norm, depending on the system.
I’ve seen pictures on social media of Lāhainā Safeway with empty shelves right now because of the influx in tourism.
Right. So what happened is that the stores had to adjust because the demand had shrunken.
Kaipo, as I'm talking to you, I'm thinking about the land that you're on and what I know about the history of agriculture in Lāhainā. You mentioned that historically it was farmland and I’m curious if that refers to the history of sugar production in the region.
Historically where we are, we've done a lot of research to try and figure out where we were and who we are and what we're gonna do. And we identified our space in Lāhainā to be known as Ka Malu ‘Ulu O Lele. That's history not taught in school. And Ka Malu ‘Ulu O Lele is the name of a large food forest system that took place in our area, in the moku of Lāhainā. And it extended from Launiupoko to just past Māla, and up to around 500 to 700 foot elevation. There's a total of roughly about 10 and a half square miles.
You can find all kinds of beautiful stories about it from both native and foreign testimonies. Newspaper articles and stories that tell about what was present in the time and what people observed. So, we teach that at our farm site, the sense of place, as well as to our farmers, to be well familiar with the area that you farm in. A lot of the things that we noticed with farms, as far as the general farm goes, even if they do organic practices and their best health practices for soil rejuvenation and erosion and all those things, they cover-crop the best they can. However their site doesn't go beyond their farm parameters. At our site, when you come, we speak to that subject. Know your watershed, know your streams, know all of those things that are vital pieces to sustain your farm and those are all identified in the historical properties of our area.
Know your watershed, know your streams, know all of those things that are vital pieces to sustain your farm
That's as light as we'll go on the historical concept of your question. And then as far as the mill goes, the mill came in and, that's another history line, but to remove the food forest system, (I'm sticking to ag), they did three major burnings in the food system. That food system didn't just provide food. It provided the material for housing, provided the material for clothing, and medicine. I'd like to use a fancy word for it, "expressive art" where you get to use dyes and colors from plants that was all found in this food forest system, along with the food provided, you know, the sweet potatoes, the kalo, the ulu, and all the different bananas. All of that is referenced in these logs that we were reading and it kind of gave us the vision for our farming, which wasn't difficult at that point. So, we moved forward.
Ku'ia Agricultural Education Center photographed by Angie Diaz
Ku'ia Agricultural Education Center photographed by Angie Diaz
You know what else we noticed? People who have farmland and have water, but don’t have the time to farm because of the demand of our living on the islands. The cost of living is so high that a farmer cannot sustain himself unless you are fortunate enough to live on your farm.
When I think of West Maui agriculture today, it seems like a food desert. On top of that, you've got all these tourist mouths to feed and empty grocery store shelves.
As I mentioned earlier, the stores started cutting back and they had to adjust to demand. There wasn't the same demand that was present before the pandemic. Food was going bad and getting old, things that we didn't care to eat in our communities weren't moving off the shelf. One of the products that stuck around on the shelves, in the beginning, was yogurt. Maybe our local community doesn’t eat much yogurt? I eat yogurt and my mom and dad eat yogurt, but I don't know. A lot of my friends I grew up with, did not eat yogurt. So we saw that get cut back during the travel restrictions. Now that the visitor rise is in, the demand for yogurt is back and it's gone. All the things that were definitely a higher demand from the tourist industry are wiped clean. I provide food, I grow food, so I'm really paying attention to food.
You know what else we noticed? People who have farmland and have water, but don’t have the time to farm because of the demand of our living on the islands. The cost of living is so high that a farmer cannot sustain himself unless you are fortunate enough to live on your farm. That might make some changes, you know?
source: https://www.feedinghawaii.org/talkstory/kaipo-kekona
Info Source/Changes:Created At: Fri Sep 15 05:10:49 +0000 2023
Updated At: Fri Sep 15 05:10:49 +0000 2023
Updated By: tfri
| Edit | Back | New facility | What this facility needs that others have | What this facility has that others need |
| Show Need Matches | Show Availability Matches | |
| Qty/Urgency Editor | Quick Need Creator | Quick Availability Creator |
Load Legend:
Rejected
Problem
Offered
Accepted/Committed
Ready To Ship
En Route
Arrived
Unloaded
Needs:
| Item | Qty Needed | Urgency | Load |
|---|
New Need
Available:
New Availability
Incoming Loads:
| Load | From |
|---|
Outgoing Loads:
| Load | To |
|---|