HCC ag project a ‘win-win’ for students and community

Kelsey Walling/Tribune-Herald From left, Hawaii Community College agriculture student Dustin Chin, HCC Chancellor Rachel Solemsaas and HCC agriculture professor Lew Nakamura cut bananas that were grown by students on a property owned by Honua Ola.

After three years of hard work, students from Hawaii Community College’s agriculture program harvested their first fruits and vegetables Tuesday from an agroforestry project in Pepeekeo.

“This is really a win-win situation for the college and the community,” said Orlo Steele, forest program director at HCC. “It’s just really an exciting place for our students to learn how to do this sustainably, and then take it to our culinary program and The Food Basket.”

The three-acre space was donated to HCC by the Honua Ola BioEnergy.

“This is for the community, for the students, for workforce development, and to end hunger on Hawaii Island,” said Honua Ola President Warren Lee.

The space was named Mauli Ola by HCC’s Hawaiian studies department, and currently hosts a mix of ulu, bananas, tapioca, sweet potatoes and corn.

“When we say Mauli Ola, it’s about being in a thriving, healthy state,” said No‘el Tagab-Cruz, associate professor of Hawaiian studies at HCC who started the harvest with an oli and blessing. “It’s really important that we work towards maintaining Mauli Ola and maintain doing what is pono for the land, because what’s pono for the land is pono for us.”

Students will maintain the land during the summer, and replant the faster-growing crops when school begins next semester.

Roughly 90% of the harvests will be donated to The Food Basket to help families on Hawaii Island.

“Having seen the day all this was being planted, it’s really awesome to see how much is already here and growing,” said Food Basket Executive Director Kristin Frost Albrecht.

She noted the importance of locally grown produce following the COVID-19 pandemic, when shipments of food reached an all-time low for the nonprofit.

“We’ve had a rough few years, and we’ve been presented with challenges we never, ever thought we‘d have to deal with,” she said. “We really had to turn to our producers here on this island, and fortunately, we’ve been able to get enough food through a lot of kindness and donations, but this is the future.”

The rest of the food will be given to HCC’s culinary program to prepare farm-to-table meals.

“When my students touch the vegetables, they should know where they come from,” said professor and chef Shawn Sumiki, who this year won the University of Hawaii Board of Regents Medal of Excellence in Teaching. “We notice it helps them appreciate the ingredients more, and the quality is unbelievable. You cannot beat it.”

The relationship between the culinary program and the ag program is also key for Sumiki.

“The most important part was that we started to exchange students,” he said. “Since my culinary students were working really close with the ag department, they got the interest to go into ag, and after they graduated my two-year course, they transitioned on to ag.”

But some students stayed with the culinary program, and now teach the next generation of HCC students.

“All of our instructors at the culinary program at HCC are graduates from the program,” he said. “That’s unique.”

Future plans for the space include bringing in livestock.

“Within a year on this property, we’re going to put in our sustainable pig pen and chicken tractors so we can harvest eggs,” ag professor Lew Nakamura said. “We believe that these three acres are going to start providing a lot of food for us.”

Filamer Ganir is in her third semester of the ag program, having previously worked with The Food Basket.

“You can’t survive without agriculture,” she said. “We need it for our clothing, and for forestry, for our shelter, and we all have to eat, so what better degree to take than agriculture.”

The community partners involved are hopeful the program’s success can spark similar projects throughout the UH system.

“The collaborations we’ve developed with forestry, Hawaiian lifestyles, culinary, all the other programs that help us achieve something like this is just remarkable,” Nakamura said. “I think the more collaborations you have, the stronger your program becomes, and the more you can achieve.”

Email Grant Phillips at gphillips@hawaiitribune-herald.com.