For this past Thanksgiving, student interns Leah Ramos and Kalani Akau and their advisor, Sothy Eng, took the initiative to collect fruits from families' backyards and put them together in baskets, which they donated to Mental Health Kōkua, a local organization that serves adults striving for mental wellness. The Urban Garden Center’s Fruit Hui immediately came on board, generously donating its entire harvest of lemon, tangerine, orange, papaya, mango, and starfruit, estimated to be more than 100 pounds of fresh, nutritious, delicious items – and all hand-picked by UGC volunteers Linda, Susie, Glenn, Jessie, Karen, Kim, and others.

“These fruit baskets not only provide nutritional food for our community members, but also help toward promoting sustainable food systems as abundant foods are being sourced and shared with those who are struggling with food access,” says Sothy of the Human Development and Family Studies program in the Dept. of Family and Consumer Sciences. “This food distribution is one of the elements within the food systems that connects between the home/community food systems with our community members who are suffering from social injustice of healthy food access."

Extension’s Kalani Matsumura adds, “The UGC volunteers normally donate these fruits to the Hawaiʻi Food Bank, as well as the CTAHR student food pantry, but today they are happy to support HDFS students’ Thanksgiving project to put together nice baskets for the needy. Thank you for the great work you're doing for families in Hawaiʻi!

Mental Health Kōkua serves adult individuals with disabilities and chronic illnesses often causing the individual to feel alone and separated from reality, explains Les Gusman, County Director-Oahu.

“This random act of kindness that you are providing gives them hope,” he says. “We appreciate Brooke Fisher, an HDFS alumni and MHK former intern, who is now doing her Master's in Social Work at Columbia University, for her continuous effort connecting CTAHRʻs Home Garden Network program to our organization.”

Serving 359,159 meals to the homeless in a single year requires a literal ton(s) of ingredients. To supplement the meals with fresh, locally grown produce, the Institute for Human Services maintains a rooftop garden on top of its Dillingham Blvd. location, carefully tended to by GoFarm Hawaiʻi graduate Lubei Cavin. At her invite, eight agents from O’ahu County Extension had an opportunity to return to IHS’s rooftop garden to see how all the magic happens. Aquaponically grown lettuce, basil, kalo, and sweet potatoes were just some of the many commodities growing.

Lubei led an aquaculture production “class” for her visitors, and shared her focus on the humanity side of agriculture and how the garden provides food to keep people fed and nourished. Extension also had an opportunity to see how the veggies are processed in the kitchen, then packed and served to IHS guests across Oʻahu.

“The field trip was eye opening,” says Jari Sugano. “It reminded us how important it is to put food into the hands of those who need it the most.”

Following the visit, Extension and volunteers made a special effort to help IHS supplement its holiday spread. They harvested and donated mandarins and citrus from Extension agent Jensen Uyeda field trial at the Poamoho Research Station.

“As this holiday season approaches, please be mindful of those in need and support organizations like IHS who strive to end homelessness in Hawaiʻi,” says Jari. “In 2020, IHS housed 2,619 clients and sheltered 2,145 people – besides serving all those meals. So please consider making donations of food, clothing, home goods, toiletries, monetary gifts, gift cards, etc.”

View a video of Extension’s visit.

Extension’s Amjad Ahmad basked in the virtual limelight as the featured speaker in “Locally Grown,” a video series by the American Association of Retired Persons, Hawaiʻi chapter, and Windward Community College. Each week during the cooking webinar series, which ran for six weeks, Amjad gave a presentation and answered questions about growing conditions, the best time to harvest, the best season and environment to grow the crops during, and other related questions. The virtual events also covered cooking demonstrations of locally grown crop (sweet potato, breadfruit, papaya, taro, lemongrass, and kabocha pumpkin) lead by a chef from Windward’s culinary program.

In all, the webinars engaged 1,329 people over the six-week period.

“Amjad did a great job representing CTAHR at the request of AARP!” says Jari Sugano. “His talks helped to heighten awareness of locally grown foods that are easy to grow – and nutritious.”

GoFarm Hawaiʻi, the award-winning new farmer training program, will bring its magic back to the Garden Isle next month. Potential cohort applicants are invited to join the GoFarm staff at its training site in Lihue to check out current student farm plots, talk to the coach and marketing specialist, and learn more about upcoming program applications and timelines. Interested participants can register here for the November 6 GoFarm Field Day @ 2pm.

• Register here for the January 13, 2022, AgCurious webinar @ 6pm. This virtual meeting is the mandatory first step to participate in GoFarm’s 2022 beginning farmer training program (Feb-Sept, 2022).
• Detailed dates and information are available at GoFarm Kauaʻi.

“We are excited to announce outreach and recruitment for our next GoFarm Hawaii training program cohort on Kauaʻi,” says Janel Yamamoto. “Please share the following dates with your networks as we look for our next group of aspiring farmers!”

With hundreds of invasive pests in the Hawaiian Islands to keep track of, entomologists have their hands full sorting out which insects constitute the highest-impact threat to local Ag – not to mention, getting this information into the hands of growers. With a new grant from the USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture, Mark Wright and Joanna Bloese will improve CTAHR Extension’s ability to disseminate the most current data to farmers and other stakeholders statewide. From the Dept. of Plant and Environmental Protection Sciences, they will continue and expand upon Integrated Pest Management (IPM) implementation programs across the most highly valued crops in Hawaiʻi agriculture.

“The improvements include upgrading our online IPM portal (the old Crop Knowledge Master) to a modernized and more accessible format, with updated information and images for hundreds of pests of numerous crops in Hawaiʻi,” says Mark. “We’re developing an app with Mark Thorne (of the Dept. of Human Nutrition, Food and Animal Sciences) for the identification, monitoring, and management of the Two-Lined Spittle Bug, a devastating pest of Hawaiʻi pastures. We’re also collaborating with Angelita Acebes of USDA-ARS to make all our IPM information available through the MyIPM app.”

In addition to delivering IPM Extension materials via Best Management Practice factsheets, online access, and direct interactions with stakeholders, Mark and Joanna will develop predictive forecasts for new, potentially high-impact insect pests. Such preemptive forecasts should help improve surveillance and early detection of pests, and responses to new invasions.

“The grant also supports research on new invasive species,” Mark adds, “such as the Rami moth, a relatively recent arrival that threatens mamaki plants in Hawaiʻi. The grant also supports short-term Extension projects run by Extension agents.”

Read the full grant.