The Kohala Center News & Upcoming Events

What sprouted was an idea for a seed-to-countertop farm and fermentation business, and in an effort to bring his concept to life, Barreca decided to give Kamehameha Schools’ Mahi‘ai Match-Up a shot. He entered and ultimately won the contest in 2015, and received five years of free lease rent on a five-acre parcel in Hale‘iwa and $15,000 in startup funds.

For the past six years, Kamehameha Schools (KS) has offered Mahi‘ai Match-Up, a competition intended to help local farmers with visions turn their dreams into realities. This year we at The Kohala Center are honored to be KS’ partner in evolving this program into a broader effort to support local food producers, inspire innovation and future generations, strengthen community food security, and deepen our kinship with ʻāina.

Mahi‘ai a Ola honors the deeper meaning and role of mahi‘ai—often interpreted as farmer—by recognizing that farmers do more than grow food: they cultivate minds, families, and communities. The expanded initiative is comprised of three programs:

1. Mahiʻai Match-Up: KS’ legacy agricultural business plan competition. This year’s winner will receive a prize package valued at over $25,000, consisting of business development services from The Kohala Center valued at $5,000, waived rent on up to 10 acres of KS land in Hawai‘i Island’s South Hilo district valued at up to $10,000, and $10,000 in seed funding donated by Ulupono Initiative to help start and grow their business. Applications for Mahi‘ai Match-Up are due by September 20, 2019.
2. Mahiʻai a Ao: Scholarship awards and support for various agriculture-related educational programs, including our Ōhāhā High School AgriCULTURE Program, in partnership with GoFarm Hawaiʻi.
3. MahiX: An open innovation challenge seeking cooperative solutions to Hawai‘i’s most pressing agricultural issues.

“I’m excited to see who wins this year and can’t wait to work with them,” says Nicole Milne, our vice president of food and agricultural initiatives. “Mahi‘ai Match-Up is an incredible opportunity for Hawai‘i food producers that provides low-cost access to agricultural lands and business assistance during a business’ first couple years, at a time when cash flow is typically lowest.”

Our RCBDS team works to expand and strengthen Hawai‘i’s rural economies and food systems by providing a wide array of professional assistance to local farmers, value-added producers, and small businesses. This year’s Mahi‘ai Match-Up winner will be introduced to our team of rural economic development specialists to determine their specific needs and develop a customized consulting services program.

“In phase two [of the competition] they want to see a full business plan, including the business model, identifying crops, cash flow, everything,” Barreca explains. “It was the first time I even attempted anything like that, and Nicole’s team helped me with details of the business plan and how to present it.”

Over the next two to three years, Barreca’s business evolved. As he and his team trialled and tested their organic kimchee and sauerkraut products, selling to local retailers along with their fresh, organic produce, he harnessed his web-development expertise to establish Farm Link, an online, local food marketplace designed to connect their farm and a network of other local farmers with both wholesale and commercial customers. However, he and his team had bitten off a bit more than they could chew.

We recently assisted Rob once again with securing a grant to install a multi-temperature, cold storage facility for their organic farm and as a drop-off point for the network of farmers in the expanding Farm Link program.

“I’m so fortunate that The Kohala Center exists. Any time I reach out they are super eager to help. I’m a huge fan, and we’re stoked about how the Match-Up award catapulted us. I have everyone at The Center on speed dial. It’s nice being able to talk to a human and say here’s what I’m thinking, and have help available to decipher all the federal grant processes.”

The first round of applications for this year’s Mahi‘ai Match-Up competition is due Friday, September 20, with final business plans due in December. The winner will be announced February 7, 2020, at a Mahi‘ai a Ola farm to table event. Learn more and apply at ksbe.edu/mahiai.

For the third year, our Hawai‘i Public Seed Initiative is co-presenting Hawai‘i Seed Fest: Local Seeds for Local Needs, with events in Honalo, Hawai‘i Island on Saturday, September 21, and Makawao, Maui on Sunday, September 22. The West Hawai‘i Island event will be hosted by Gerry Herbert and Nancy Redfeather at Kawanui Farm and will include their once-a-year farm tour, tastings of crops grown during Kona’s wet season, and education about how to propagate tropical food crops. The Maui event, hosted by Evan Ryan at Pono Grown Farm Center, will include a seed-saving workshop, seed and cutting exchange, and a workshop on how to conduct successful variety trials in your garden. Pre-registration is required, and space is very limited for the Honalo event. Presented in partnership with the County of Hawai‘i. View the Honalo and Makawao event flyers for more information and instructions on how to reserve your seat.

Our Kahalu‘u Bay Education Center (KBEC) staff and ReefTeachers recently installed temperature sensors in the bay to track temperature over time. With generous support from Silver Spiral Seas, our team was able to deploy six temperature sensors that will help us monitor and track coral bleaching in Kahaluʻu Bay, as another significant increase in ocean temperatures is anticipated over the next 12 weeks. The team will correlate the temperature data with ecosystem data to share information about the health of Kahaluʻu Bay’s coral reef ecosystem with community members and natural resource managers. Check out this short video of the sensor deployment, and contact Kathleen Clark, our KBEC operations and education specialist, for more information.

The word “eco” comes from the Greek oikos, meaning “home, place to live.” So the ecosystem is the system of home. What does this mean for our sense of family and how we conceptualize education as an ecosystem? Our president and CEO, Cheryl Ka‘uhane Lupenui, and Gary Chapin, senior associate, Quality Performance Assessment, of the Center for Collaborative Education, recently engaged in a conversation about the metaphors we use to describe and visualize K-12 education, contemplating educational systems as educational ecosystems through both Western and indigenous Hawaiian lenses. Read the conversation here, and contact us if you’d like to share your thoughts.