Source: WAIPA FOUNDATION submitted to
WAIPA COMMUNITY KITCHEN, POI MILL & FARM PROJECT
Sponsoring Institution
National Institute of Food and Agriculture
Project Status
NEW
Funding Source
Reporting Frequency
Annual
Accession No.
0218269
Grant No.
2009-33800-19629
Project No.
HAWW-2008-04613
Proposal No.
2008-04613
Multistate No.
(N/A)
Program Code
LN.C
Project Start Date
Apr 15, 2009
Project End Date
Apr 14, 2012
Grant Year
2009
Project Director
Sproat-Beck, S.
Recipient Organization
WAIPA FOUNDATION
P.O. BOX 1189
HANALEI,HI 96714
Performing Department
(N/A)
Non Technical Summary
Situation or Problem: Ninety percent of the food consumed on the island of Kaua`i is imported from the U.S. Mainland, resulting in the highest food prices in the nation. Kaua`i is at the end of the transportation lines, with all food being imported by barge or commercial airlines. With extremely high, and increasing costs of living, Kauai's communities direly need to expand local subsistence gardening and local food production in order to improve the island's self-reliance and better support low-income residents. Kalo (taro) and poi are high quality traditional staple foods of the Hawaiian people, small and family farmers in the area grow 60% of the Kalo (taro) in the State, of which 90% is sold to large mills, mostly off-island, at extremely low farm gate prices. Other knowledgeable farmers grow gourmet produce sold to hotels and resorts, and at local farmer markets, which are popular and well-attended by visitors and residents alike. Such markets provide an important food system link in enabling family farmers to connect directly with those seeking to buy local produce. There is great need for a community certified facility to process crops and make value added products, and technical and business training to build capacity for farmers to succeed in these efforts. Farmers on Kaua`i are an aging population, and almost no youth or younger people are getting into farming for social and economic reasons. In order to achieve long-term food security for the island, youth need to be inspired to grow food to feed themselves and their communities, and to get their families into it. This is beginning to be achieved by Waipa's youth programs, and other Public Charter Schools which incorporate gardening into their curriculum. Waipa has found that exposing children on a regular basis to growing, making and eating food, makes it part of their knowledge and experience base, and their interest in it continues to grow. Purpose: This project's purposes are to improve local food system infrastructure and self-reliance by increasing and providing local food processing capacity and engaging farmers, consumers and distribution links to improve farm profitability, local food distribution and consumption; Increasing community-based, family farming, distribution, and consumption of healthy, locally grown foods, and improving skill levels of children, youth, and families in these areas; And increasing available knowledge and information on sustainable agricultural practices relevant to area crops, soils and conditions, and available resources.
Animal Health Component
100%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
(N/A)
Applied
100%
Developmental
(N/A)
Classification

Knowledge Area (KA)Subject of Investigation (SOI)Field of Science (FOS)Percent
70450101010100%
Knowledge Area
704 - Nutrition and Hunger in the Population;

Subject Of Investigation
5010 - Food;

Field Of Science
1010 - Nutrition and metabolism;
Goals / Objectives
Goal #1: Improve local food system infrastructure and self-reliance by increasing & providing local food processing capacity and engaging farmers, consumers and distribution links to improve local farm profitability, local food distribution and local food consumption. Objectives and outputs of Goal #1: A. Construct and equip a state certified community commercial kitchen and poi mill as a community asset completed & available for use by 2010. By project's end, an increased volume, availability and/or diversity of local foods will be available at local farmers markets and other venues. B. Facilitate training and use of either the certified kitchen or poi mill by 10 local farming families, organizations, programs or groups by project year 3. C. Facilitate increased poi and locally grown produce distribution to 150 families by project end. Mill and distribute 500 lbs of poi weekly in the new facility by end of Year 2, and 750 pounds per week by end year 3. D. Create a grassroots, community-based distribution network for poi and kalo by establishing relationships and distribution points with organizations or individuals in low income communities. Goal #2: Increase community-based, family farming, distribution, and consumption of healthy, locally grown foods, and improve skill levels of children, youth, and families. Objectives and outputs of Goal #2: A. Expand Waipa's half acre organic garden to 1 acre in rotation, and utilize garden and existing kalo farms (2 acres) for expanded youth programs and other garden education programs for over 250 educational program participants/year. B. Increased capacity and improved sustainability of our farm irrigation system with 2 new catchment/storage tanks. C. Enroll at least 40 youth from low income families in programs to learn growing, marketing, and/or processing healthy, locally grown food, through hands-on activities that utilize the kitchen facility, poi mill, garden and kalo farm sites. D. Create paid internships for at least 10 older youth for 1-3 years in kalo or vegetable gardening and food processing. Target 50% managing their own enterprise by project end, E. E. Expand training opportunities to address community's specific needs. F. Host an annual event to showcase and promote traditional food skills and knowledge. Goal #3: Increase available knowledge and information on sustainable agricultural practices relevant to area crops, local soils, growing conditions and resources. Objectives and outputs of Goal #3: A. Pilot and experiment with sustainable practices in the development and management of the expanded 1 acre garden and existing lo`i kalo (wetland taro fields). B. Document Waipa's baseline management practices, experiments conducted, findings and how new practices have improved Waipa's sustainable management of its resources. C. Demonstrate and make available to the local farming community, increased information on sustainable agricultural practices relevant to area crops, soils & conditions, and available resources.
Project Methods
Goal #1: Improve local food system infrastructure and self-reliance by increasing & providing local food processing capacity and engaging farmers, consumers and distribution links to improve local farm profitability, local food distribution and local food consumption. Methods of accomplishing Goal #1: Construct and equip a state certified community commercial kitchen and poi mill as a community asset, and fund initial staffing of the poi mill through a 25% FTE position to coordinate poi day and distribution/expansion; Facilitating training and use of either the certified kitchen or poi mill by local farming families, organizations, programs or groups; Facilitating increased poi and locally grown produce distribution by expanding the and expanding the current distribution network, by establishing new relationships and distribution points with organizations or individuals in low income communities. Goal #2: Increase community-based, family farming, distribution, and consumption of healthy, locally grown foods, and improve skill levels of children, youth, and families. Methods of accomplishing Goal #2: Expand Waipa's half acre organic garden to 1 acre in rotation, and utilize garden and existing kalo farms (2 acres) for expanded youth programs and other garden education programs; Increasing capacity and improving sustainability of the farm irrigation system with 2 new catchment/storage tanks. Enrolling youth from low income families in programs to learn growing, marketing, and/or processing healthy, locally grown food, through hands-on activities that utilize the kitchen facility, poi mill, garden and kalo farm sites; Creating paid internships in kalo or vegetable gardening and food processing. Target 50% managing their own enterprise by project end; Expanding training opportunities to address community's specific needs through community partnerships and Waipa staff; Hosting an annual event to showcase and promote traditional food skills and knowledge. Goal #3: Increase available knowledge and information on sustainable agricultural practices relevant to area crops, local soils, growing conditions and resources. Methods of accomplishing Goal #3 Pilot and experiment with sustainable practices in the development and management of the expanded 1 acre garden and existing lo`i kalo (wetland taro fields); Document baseline management practices, experiments conducted, findings and how new practices have improved Waipa's sustainable management of its resources; Fund a 25% FTE Sustainability Coordinator to oversee sustainability planning & evaluation; Make available increased information on sustainable agricultural practices relevant to area crops, soils, conditions and available resources. Techniques will be explained, practiced and demonstrated through farm visits and written media. Only simple experimental techniques will be used. Primarily organic and locally grown and sourced fertilizer and amendments will be utilized and experimented with. Baseline measures will be taken, and the effect of inputs analyzed by utilizing experiment and control plots. Growth measurements will be taken and compared in both plots.

Progress 04/15/09 to 04/14/10

Outputs
OUTPUTS: 4 GOAL 1 Objectives: A) Plans for our new facilities reviewed by all relevant agencies. B) No output, completion by 2012. C) We averaged approximately 350 lbs weekly poi distribution. Our 4/14/2011 benchmark is 500 lbs weekly. We served 120+ distinct individuals or families with weekly poi and served 20+ families with produce in a pilot program. The 4/14/2011 benchmark is 150 families served. D) We set up computerized distribution record-keeping. 6 GOAL 2 Objectives: A) We expanded our gardens as planned. All programs noted below incorporate relevant activities such as: growing/gathering/cooking/consuming/marketing food grown on-site and locally, land stewardship, food sanitation / kitchen practices, local values & practices. We began 3 new weekly programs and 2 new programs which met 1-2 times a month, all serving ages 5-19 years. A total of 70+ participants attended multiple times, up to twice weekly. 2 charter schools brought 32 students to work onsite 2-3 times a month for several months. Adding the 80 participants (ages 5-16 years) of our established regular programs means we regularly served 180+ program participants MULTIPLE times in year 1. Over 100 K-8 students from a regional private school came for various fieldtrips and activities, as did several K-6 classes from nearby public schools, so we exceeded our 250 youth participant benchmark. B) We improved our irrigation system by installing a new storage tank and made good progress on the infrastructure required for the 2nd tank. C) Given census data, at least half of 180 frequent youth program participants noted above are low income so we exceeded our benchmark of 40 youth. D) We worked with 16 paid youth interns. A dedicated "intern garden" was established as the first effort toward the 2012 youth enterprise. E) We began assessing community training needs and identified several issues we can address in year 2. F) Over 400 people attended our community luau in DEC/2009 which showcased traditional luau foods. Booths included a Hawaiian language game, informational displays, and traditional craft like lei. Performances featured traditional hula / music. Over 100 youth & 2 dozen adults attended our FEB/2010 Makahiki activities (native Hawaiian sport & skill games) which featured traditional luau foods. Over 70 youth and at least as many adults attended our JUL/2009 Pa'ina which showcased Hawaiian chants & songs as well as local food. 3 GOAL #3 Objectives: A) We began these pilot sustainability projects: 1) Breeding tilapia in our new irrigation tank to note effects of fish effluent in our irrigation. 2) A new habitat for red-worms who are fed our shredded office paper. 3) Bio-Pods that grow Black Soldier fly larvae (poultry feed). Chicken and ducks then provide fertilizer through their droppings. 4) A new charter school partnership experimenting with different fertilizers. 5) Studying flash flood water flow and garden site topography to manage surface water through various strategies. B) We initiated internal systems to manage data gathering. C) No output, completion date in 2012. PARTICIPANTS: During year 1, we partnered with 5 other organizations to implement our youth garden/food programs. Kamehameha Schools (KS), is a large private school system that serves Hawaiians statewide. KS provided significant support of the site infrastructure (engineering and construction) for the Waipa Community Kitchen & Poi Mill and also funds most of Waipa's youth programs. Kawaikini Public Charter School and Kanuikapono Charter School students came to regular activities at Waipa. Hau'oli Mau Loa Foundation supported Waipa's 5 new programs noted in the output narrative. The Bill Healy Foundation provided part-time support for our Garden Manager. Our sustainability coordinator position was filled by a different staff member, but other than that no significant changes were made to our project staffing from what was originally proposed. TARGET AUDIENCES: The communities served by this project are: low income residents, native Hawaiians and farming families in the Halele`a district (north shore) of Kaua`i, Hawaii; and the low income and native Hawaiian populations in communities throughout Kaua`i, and within the State of Hawaii. Kaua`i's population is about 60,000 full time residents and 1 million visitors annually. At least 90% of food consumed on the island is reportedly imported from the U.S. Mainland. Food stores carry the same products as any American supermarket, but prices are much higher. Kaua`i is at the end of the transportation lines, with all food being imported by barge or commercial airlines. Adding to these pressures, land values have skyrocketed on Kaua`i, and especially in Halelea, which has become a premium travel destination. Until recently, local government mostly emphasized resort and high-end housing developments to serve visitors and the ultra-rich. 2000 Census data puts the Halelea regional population about 6,348. Working low-income families, who account for half of all full time regional residents according to county summaries, struggle to pay rising housing and food costs. The average per capita income of Hawaiians in these communities is $13,867.50. While 46.2% of Hawaiians in this community pay over 25% of their income in rent, 24.2% live in homes with more than one person to a room, and 28.3% do not have access to a vehicle. Many within Halele`a and on Kaua`i are employed in the visitor industry which is quickly deflating due to rising airfares and falling US economy. While still plentiful, resort jobs like housecleaning, landscaping, and restaurant work pay only slightly more than minimum wage with limited advancement. In recent years, Kauai workers led the state in number of those with more than one job at a time. With constant and recent increases in housing, land values, food, utilities, fuel, and shipping and over-reliance on a vulnerable visitor industry, Kauai's communities direly need to expand local subsistence gardening and local food production in order to improve the island's self-reliance and better support low-income residents. PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: Nothing significant to report during this reporting period.

Impacts
Our distribution data affirms that our program participants and distribution participants ate more locally grown produce and made certain items, like poi, a more regular staple at their tables. Thanks to the popularity of our school partnerships and new site curriculum that integrates with school standards, another important societal change locally is that schools are visiting our site much more frequently and are more frequently integrating time spent onsite with classroom lessons and planning. Improvements made to our new irrigation system will reduced our dependency on county water for agricultural operations and are an important component of our sustainability vision. The irrigation system improvements also helped to effect policy changes at our local county government Water Department when Water Department leadership approved reduced water demands for our site as well as alternative strategies we suggested. This was instrumental in clearing the way for the water department's approval of the construction plans for our new certified kitchen and poi mill facilities. We must acknowledge that we do not yet have much quantifiable data to share regarding our goals/objectives related to behavioral changes as of the end of year 1, but would also like to point out that our goals / objectives have benchmarks set for the ends of years 2 and 3. We did begin to develop internal systems to measure outcomes and impacts in year 1, including an increased emphasis on regular evaluation/reflection by staff and program participants. These efforts have already yielded a wealth of anecdotal information and also definitely improved how staff and program participants understand various organizational objectives, expectations and planning. While much might be best characterized as anecdotal, we collected information regarding behavioral changes from staff, program participants, parents of program participants and others. Recognized trends that had emerged as of the end of year 1 are: 1) Waipa youth participants broadly acknowledge an increased appreciation for healthy food consumption, increased knowledge of how to grow food, increased enthusiasm for participating in various activities associated with growing food, processing food, preparing/cooking food, distributing food to their families and significant interest in pilot activities intended to eventually generate revenue such as selling at farmer market. 2) Parents of program participants broadly acknowledge changes in the eating behavior of their children such as being more open to vegetables and being excited by opportunities to eat or make kale salad or cooked taro which the children bring home from Waipa programs. 3) ALL families who participated in our 2009 summer pilot produce distribution expressed a desire to participate in future produce distribution activities. 4) Youth interns in our work training program have greatly improved or increased their skill-sets / knowledge and uniformly express a greater sense of confidence, sense of belonging and impressive short-term aspirations.

Publications

  • No publications reported this period