By Marielle Hampton
This summer, youths across the state learned and cooked their way through “4-H Camp Kau Kau,” a new week-long summer culinary camp from CTAHR’s 4-H Youth Development Program. Recipes and lessons focused on the context and diversity of local food in Hawai‘i, with hands-on cooking experiences and educational activities about Hawai‘i’s food and agricultural history.
The 4-H members also played games like “Mix Plate Match-up” and worked in teams to prepare dishes like kalua pork, saimin, lumpia, manapua, and Portuguese bean soup. Almost half of surveyed students reported they were more interested in a career related to local food because of the camp, and 83% said they will cook the recipes they learned at home. As one participant happily shared, “I feel like I can actually cook something for myself and my family.”
It takes a village to pilot Camp Kau Kau for 47 middle-school youths on O‘ahu, Maui, Lana‘i, Hawai‘i Island, and Kaua‘i. Extension sends a warm Mahalo to the many dedicated 4-H volunteers and community partners. Host sites for 4-H Camp Kau Kau included Māla‘ai, Urban Garden Center, Ho‘ola Lahui Hawai‘i, and The Food Lab at UH Mānoa. Funding for 4-H Camp Kau Kau was generously provided by the Dept. of Family and Consumer Sciences and UH’s SEED IDEAS.
The 4-H Camp Kau Kau team, which includes Extension agents Marielle Hampton, Nancy Ooki, Tina Mueller, Hallie Cristobal, and Christine Hanakawa, will gather feedback to inform program revisions before the next planned session in Summer 2025. For more information, please contact me at hamptonm@hawaii.edu.
Photos show: Campers cooking outdoors at Māla‘ai, the culinary garden of Waimea Middle School on the Big Island; Youths on Maui practicing their knife skills as they prepare pickled cucumber; Campers on Lana‘i preparing the fillings for their manapua dough; Campers learned how to properly measure wet and dry ingredients; Campers making pinakbet in the electric pressure cooker; Campers practicing “mise en place” (a French culinary term that teaches campers to read the recipes thoroughly and gather all ingredients before they begin the cooking process); Campers working on written activities, like poetry and family recipes, to build their understanding of themselves and their community.