Maui school successfully launches garden to cafeteria lunches

HĀNA (HawaiiNewsNow) – A campus garden in East Maui has rich soil and hardworking kids.

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The māla (garden) at Hāna High and Elementary School has everything from ʻuala (sweet potato) to corn and many other crops, providing a hands-on learning opportunity for students.

“It’s in the fabric of our school,” said Christopher Sanita, Hāna High School principal. “Kids are not having to leave or take a bus or go somewhere far away. It’s in our DNA.”

For Hāna High students Puna Boy Phillips and Orama Tehiva, the garden is their classroom, their kuleana (responsibility) and their way of life.

“Whenever we go hunt or go fish, we get the garden for go to,” said Phillips, a sophomore.

Hāna is a rural town in East Maui reachable by a road with curves and one-lane bridges.

“We are two hours plus away from Central Maui,” said Hau’oli Kahaleuahi, community outreach coordinator for Ma Ka Hana Ka ʻIke. “It takes a long time to get here. If we’re talking about food, it has to travel a long way to get here.”

For many of them, learning these skills is not just important, but necessary.

“I can provide for my family and give them the food and nutrients that they need throughout their daily lives because sometimes things can get hard and tough,” said Tehiva, a junior. “You don’t have too much supplies. So, you’re gonna have to use the things that you have.”

Ma Ka Hana Ka ʻIke started at Hāna School in 2000 to provide opportunities for students who might not thrive in a traditional classroom and to give back to their community.

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“Everything is either food, medicine, flowers or different fixtures,” said school garden coordinator Ryan Poe.

Twenty-six years later, it has flourished into an award-winning vocational training organization for youth of all ages.

The garden is worked on seven days a week, 365 days a year, and students as young as four years old come and help out.

Although crops on campus have been around for about a decade, the organization recently became certified by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and approved by the Hawaii Department of Education to serve its homegrown food to students at lunchtime — a goal leaders said they have been working toward for five years.

The state’s goal is for 30% of food served in public school meals to be locally sourced by 2030.

“That’s a great goal and something that I’m sure everybody can get behind. However, the systems to support that in actually becoming a reality, I don’t think are there yet,” Kahaleuahi said.

Ma Ka Hana Ka ʻIke hopes to work with the DOE and other schools to help reach that goal.

“It’s very important for our students to learn about these things, and hopefully we can keep this going for generations to come,” said Tehiva.

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