Getting Their Hands Dirty

Kids participating in Maui’s Big Brothers Big Sisters program took a literal field trip—to the GoFarm garden plots at UH-Maui College. GoFarm farm coach P.J. Oliveros showed the kids about farming, inspiring some with a new ambition: to become farmers when they grow up. This was his plan; as P.J. explained, “We need to get our youth interested in agriculture again. … I didn’t find my passion for agriculture till I started working on a farm… a few years after I graduated from high school. I feel that there are a lot of kids out there like me that won’t find their passion until they get their hands dirty experiencing it. By doing these farm visits and showing the youth that farming is a viable career, I can maybe spark that passion in keiki …. If I can even get one or two of them inspired, I feel that I’ve done my part.”

GoFarm Hawai‘i is an extremely successful beginning farmer training program housed in CTAHR with classes throughout the Islands. P.J. extended the invitation to “future farmers of all ages” to come work and find out more at the UH-Maui College Agriculture Department gardens every Saturday morning. Read more about it in this Maui News article.