Hawai‘i Schools Celebrate Farm to School Week

October 1, 2017 (Big Island Now)—The Hawai‘i Farm to School Initiative is celebrating Farm to School Week by highlighting its pilot project in Kohala. From Oct. 2 to 5, students at Kohala public schools will enjoy delicious, fresh cooked meals that will feature local ingredients such as Big Island ground beef, apple bananas, sweet potatoes and pineapple.
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Kaiser Permanente awards $279,000 in grants to improve health across the state

August 29, 2017 (State of Reform)—Kaiser Permanente Hawaii announced that it has selected five community organizations to receive grants to improve access to quality health care, nutrition and health education across the state.
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Tough talk: Scientists, teachers discuss uphill battle of educating community on climate change

July 26, 2017 (West Hawaii Today)—It was another case of the usual suspects.

What Dr. Chip Fletcher, of the University of Hawaii at Manoa’s School of Ocean and Earth Science Technology, set out to accomplish Tuesday afternoon in the Waimea School Cafeteria is encompassed by the same basic goal to which climate scientists have aspired for decades — to educate the public on the scientific truth of climate change.

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Hawaii’s Farm to School Program encourages local delicious products in their meals

May 24, 2017 (KHON2)—Farm to school programs across the nation are giving students a better understanding of the food system and where their food comes from. Hawaii has its own program in place and is fulfilling its mission and a lot more.
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Hawaii Farm to School Initiative

May 24, 2017 (Hawaii News Now)—Spearheaded by Lt. Governor Shan Tsutsui, the Hawaii State Department of Education (HIDOE), the Hawaii Department of Agriculture and The Kohala Center are working collaboratively on the Farm to School Initiative.  Across the nation, farm to school programs are reconnecting students to a better understanding of the food system and where their food comes from. Farm to school programs introduce students to healthier eating habits and help them become familiar with new vegetables and fruits that they and their families will then be more willing to incorporate into their own diets.
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Teachers encouraged to apply for outdoor science professional development program

May 16, 2017 (West Hawaii Today)—Hawaii teachers and their students will have opportunities this year to leave the classroom and study firsthand the island’s ahupuaa, or traditional Hawaiian mountain-to-sea land divisions.

The Kohala Center is recruiting middle and high school teachers from West Hawaii and throughout the state for its Hawaii Meaningful Environmental Education for Teachers (HI-MEET) program — an innovative, hands-on, science-based program that focuses on bay and watershed education.

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How her garden grows: Nancy Redfeather reflects on The Kohala Center accomplishments and retirement priorities

May 16, 2017 (West Hawaii Today)—Nancy Redfeather, whose name is synonymous with school gardens on Hawaii Island, recently retired from a prestigious 10-year career at The Kohala Center in Waimea.

She started working at The Kohala Center in 2006 and accomplished so much that people assumed she’d been working there much longer than 10 years. But for Redfeather, the time flew by and was not so much a job, but a labor of love.

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Outdoor Science Professional Development Program for Teachers

May 11, 2017 (BigIslandNow.com)—The Kohala Center is looking for middle and high school teachers for its Hawai‘i Meaningful Environmental Education for Teachers program. Teachers and their students will have opportunity to leave the classroom and study the island’s ahupua‘a, or traditional Hawaiian mountain-to-sea land divisions.
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New school lunch program emphasizes fresh local fare made from scratch

April 18, 2017 (Honolulu Star-Advertiser)—WAIMEA, Hawaii island >> A group of cafeteria workers in white hairnets listened as chef Greg Christian demonstrated the importance of properly preparing ingredients before starting to cook. Prep work is vital to an organized kitchen that cooks from scratch, he said as he sliced a large carrot in the Kohala Elementary School kitchen. Items should be ready to go into the pan when the cook starts the stove, then served fresh. He calls the approach “just-in-time cooking.”
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A day devoted to caring for Earth: Volunteer events planned throughout North Hawaii

April 14, 2017 (West Hawaii Today)—In celebration of Earth Day, residents can choose from six volunteer activities around the island, each focusing on ways to give back to the land. Organized by The Kohala Center, the official name for the day is La Malama Honua, meaning “a day to care for our Earth” in Hawaiian.
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