He Lālā Ola: Branching out to provision more communities

Launched in 2021, He Lālā Ola created a community provisioning hub established by native Hawaiian farmers for native Hawaiian families in response to the need for healthy, locally grown food, now and into the future. Given the coronavirus pandemic and other future disruptions to our island’s food supply, it is critical to provision community with the means to prepare, preserve, and store food for today and into the future.

“He Lālā Ola” represents an extension of Hanauna Ola, Nā Kālai Wa‘a’s initiative to provision the Makali‘i voyaging canoe with foods grown and produced in Hawai‘i. The intention of He Lālā Ola is to encourage this provisioning of local foods in and for land-based communities as well.

“Is it possible to provision a voyaging canoe in this great day and age, when we have everything at our fingertips? If we can, it says a lot about us as a community! And if we can’t, it also says a lot about us as a community.”—Chadd Paishon

“If you can feed one canoe with foods grown, harvested, and packaged on our island, then we can feed our community.” —Pomai Bertelmann

The Kohala Center worked with five hubs on Hawai‘i Island dedicated to provisioning their community: Māla‘ai: The Culinary Garden of Waimea Middle School, Kahua Pa‘a Mua, Hui Mālama i ke Ala ʻŪlili (huiMAU), Kanu o ka ‘Āina, and our demonstration farm at Nāmoku. Each hub engaged in food preservation to exemplify the ‘ono foods that can be made from our local ‘āina.