A handful of University of Hawaiʻi campuses have been awarded a $1.5 million grant to strengthen Native Hawaiian-serving institutions by supporting students in food and agricultural sciences.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian grant will be used to support UH’s Huaka‘i ‘Ike ‘Āina project. The funding will give students direct financial support, access to experiential and land-based activities and education that includes Indigenous ecological knowledge.

One of the program’s goals is to help underrepresented students focus on those studies without financial stress. Stakeholders say the program will also help create sustainable food systems in Hawaiʻi.

“We're creating a community-supported view and vision and future for Hawaiʻi's food systems,” said Matthew Kekoa Lau, a UH West Oʻahu assistant professor. “The future also just looks like a more sustainable future where we're not relying so much on imported foods, that we're producing more of our food here and in ways that are better for us as a whole, as a society.”

The project will also create relationships with organizations that provide education in food systems. Those organizations include MA‘O Organic Farms, Ho‘okua‘āina, Kōkua Learning Farm, Hawaiʻi Banana Source, Kualoa Grown, Kako‘o ‘Ōiwi, Waipā and Hawai‘i ‘Ulu Coop.

The USDA grant was awarded to UH West Oʻahu, Leeward Community College, Hawaiʻi Community College, and UH Mānoa’s College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources.

Source - https://www.hawaiipublicradio.org