Trust for Public Land staffers Laura Hokunani Edmunds Ka`akua and Lea Hong are among the more than 120 subscribers who receive MA`O produce under its community-supported agriculture program.
are the first members of their family to attend college, and several have graduated and become esteemed community leaders. Some have won national fellowships, or traveled as far as Washington, D.C., Alaska, and Italy to speak on youth leadership and conservation. “MA‘O has opened my eyes and exposed me to the things happening in the world and not just in Wai‘anae,” says former intern and farm co- manager Cheryse Sano, who recently represented Hawai‘i at the Terra Madre slow food conference in Turin, Italy. “I want to be a farmer. I’m proud to be doing what I’m doing.” MA‘O’s ultimate ambition is to raise a new generation
of youth leaders serving as positive models for their com- munity. “They should be practicing ho‘iho‘i, which means ‘to give,’” says William Aila’s son, William Jr., who is director of Hawai‘i’s Department of Land and Natural Resourc- es. “If you have something that someone else needs, you should by all means share it,” adds the younger Aila. “It is your responsibility to act in that manner.”
32 LAND&PEOPLE Spring/Summer 2012 MA‘O was born out of a desire to strengthen a strug-
gling community, restore a proud heritage of sustainable Hawaiian agriculture, and support young people seek- ing higher education. The project has achieved all this while also becoming a symbol of hope and a model of agricultural abundance. The Mala ‘Ai ‘Opio—youth food garden—has excelled at growing both healthy food and healthy youth. Watching the interns bent in the fields, laughing, their fingers buried in the soil, it’s clear that there is much growth yet to come.
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Born and raised on O`ahu, Aaron Kandell splits his time between Hawai`i and Hollywood, where he is a freelance journalist and a professional screenwriter.
For more information on community gardens and the local food movement, go to tpl.org/localfood.