By COLIN M. STEWART By COLIN M. STEWART ADVERTISING Tribune-Herald Staff Writer Hawaii has its own version of the old adage “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you
By COLIN M. STEWART
Tribune-Herald Staff Writer
Hawaii has its own version of the old adage “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime,” according to Honokaa Elementary School Hawaiian studies teacher Lanakila Mangauil.
“‘Huli i ka lima ilalo,’ or ‘Turn your hands down,’” he said. “It’s a slogan at the school. We’ve been teaching the importance of sustainability. It means, instead of holding your hands out, looking for a handout, put them down to the ground, to the soil, and do it for yourself. The kids are learning to help to raise their own food.”
Mangauil was speaking about his students and the work they are doing with their own on-campus sustainable gardens, but the County Council believes that the same concept can apply to feeding Hawaii Island’s hungry families. Mangauil and a few Big Isle farmers were among the guests at a Thursday morning press conference called by County Councilman Dominic Yagong to announce what he called a “bold and exciting” attempt by the county to make a substantial impact on the Big Island’s “food insecurity problem.”
“Right now, 27 percent of Hawaii Island residents are food insecure,” Yagong said. “That means they don’t know where their next meal is coming from, and The Food Basket has seen … an increase of 42 percent of those using their service. … That is unacceptable.”
Earlier this month, Hawaii County Council voted to declare an emergency food shortage and make a $275,000 appropriation to the island’s primary The Food Basket to help with the sharp increase in needy Big Island families over the last several years. But last week, county council members also voted unanimously on a resolution to provide county lands to a nonprofit partner for the purpose of providing free food to The Food Basket and its 87 affiliates around the island.
“Because of the dire need we have in the county, and the drastic statistics, we need a long-term, sustainable solution,” Yagong explained.
The land in question, 15 acres fronting Mamalahoa Highway in Paauilo, is part of a 1,048-acre parcel, among others, that the county acquired years ago from faltering sugar plantations. The plan is to rent that space to a nonprofit organization for the cost of $1 a year, in return for the group focusing on four major areas.
First and foremost, Yagong said, the nonprofit will grow produce on the property to be given to The Food Basket. That could involve an operation where workers are compensated by the nonprofit, or volunteers operate the farm, or a combination of the two.
Secondly, the nonprofit will be expected to provide a variety of educational opportunities with help from area farmers and sustainability experts.
“We want to teach people in the community how to grow their own food, so they can start their own backyard gardens,” he said.
Drake Weinert, of Natural Farming Hawaii, is a proponent of Korean Natural Farming, which focuses on sustainable farming methods that rely on locally produced microbes, rather than imported fertilizers. He travels the island sharing his methods with a variety of groups, and said that families can wean themselves off of expensive groceries by learning how to grow fruits and vegetables in their yards.
“With just a quarter of an acre (of land), you can keep a family fed,” he said. “Very well fed, with lots left over that they can sell.”
Thirdly, the operator of the land would look at using about 10 acres to raise donated cattle, so that needy families will be able to supplement their meals with free protein. Yagong said the county could offer ranchers tax incentives in return for the cattle. Meanwhile, council members have considered partnering with the state-owned slaughterhouse in Paauilo to process the cattle into ground beef and stew meat.
The fourth component of the plan would be for the county to pursue allowing wild game permits so that the Food Basket can accept donations from Big Isle hunters. Currently, the food bank can only accept meat that has been inspected, Yagong said.
“We’ll have to go out and get that permitting in place. Then, we could even build a couple of small smokehouses on property that the hunting community can use to donate to needy families,” he said.
As for how much manpower or how much startup cash such an undertaking will require, Yagong said the particulars have yet to be worked out. The county is accepting proposals from various nonprofits, and once one is selected more information will be forthcoming.
While the project has a way to go before becoming a reality, the potential for the program would have a major impact on The Food Basket’s ability to supply area families with the food they need to supplement their meals, said Executive Director Nani Lee.
“A regular supply of fresh produce would do wonders for the health of our recipients,” she said. “If the project meets its objectives, it would provide a model for similar county/private/nonprofit partnership that would greatly benefit county residents and definitely would assist The Food Basket provide nutritious food to our recipients. Community-government collaborations to meet the greater need is a movement in the positive direction.”
She added that similar efforts on the mainland have met with success, including a farm in Multnomah County, Oregon, that raises about 20,000-40,000 pounds of food. Mother Earth Farms in Puyallup, Wash., produces about 150,000 pounds of food for food banks on 8 acres of land, and using only volunteer labor.
Email Colin M. Stewart at cstewart@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
