About 100 students, faculty, and staff attended the CTAHR Fall Fair on Friday, September 21. This year’s event had a special focus: the new student lounge, which offers students a safe place to meet, study, and learn. It is also the home of the new student food pantry, which will be expanding throughout the year. The event began with a beautiful ceremony led by Mehana Vaughan and Carl Evensen (NREM), Noa Lincoln and Kauahi Perez (TPSS), and Interim Associate Dean for Extension Kelvin Sewake, joined by Native Hawaiian Affairs specialist Punihei Lipe, to help open the lounge to the students and emphasize the college as a Hawaiian place of learning. Dean Comerford followed with some striking words about the importance of ensuring that students are not going hungry, especially with the college’s emphasis on food and ag systems. On that note, everyone was then welcomed to enjoy some pupu, and undergraduates participated in a scavenger hunt in which they searched for hidden items to help “restock” the lounge’s food pantry. Congratulations to the winning team: Michelle Au, Kehea Acosta, and Jarett Lau! Of course, no Fall Fair is complete without the traditional ice cream-eating contest. Eight participants lined up to eat ice cream as fast as they could, using no hands! Congratulations to the champion, Maxwell Bendes, from TPSS! Thank-yous go to all who attended and participated in the competitions, as well as to Meadow Gold Dairies of Hawai‘i for its continued support and donations, SAPFB for helping fund this event, Joannie Dobbs and the HNFAS department for usage of their facilities, Ryan Kurasaki for tables, and all the volunteers who helped this event run smoothly. The Fall Fair aims to strengthen ties among our diverse CTAHR ‘ohana, and with everyone’s help, it succeeded! Follow this link to see photos of the event.