It takes a garden to grow a community and that is what has happened at the Mala’ai Culinary Garden over the last ten years. The seed for the garden was germinated ten years ago when Amanda Rieux arrived in Waimea from the Edible School Yard in Berkeley, to be the garden director for the as yet non-existent garden.
“When we first started I felt like the tailor in the Emperor’s New Clothes. I would tell people, it's going to be great and they were like, uh huh.” But the actual seed for the garden was the work of Waimea Naturopath, Michelle Suber who wanted to contribute to the health of the community she had come to love.
“She came to the Edible School Yard and spent two weeks with us. She spent time in the garden, in the kitchen classroom, with the executive director, principal and the teachers. She was trying to replicate it,” said Rieux. Two years later and a chance email to Suber and Amanda found herself planted in an as yet imaginary garden.
“You have to know where you are before you know where you’re going,” said Holly Sergeant-Green, Mala’ai garden teacher and much like the first Polynesians who arrived in the islands, close observation of the land and natural systems was the first order of the day. “You first try to look at it and you watch how the weather patterns are and what the rain fall is and all those things and you see what's already there. Almost immediately I started doing some work with Pua Case and that whole sense of what this place means,” added Rieux.
They listened and the land spoke to them. “We had a blessing pretty early on with Dean Kalka. We had probably a hundred people and we had no idea where we were going to be centered in this little piece of land but [as it happens], we were all standing around what was to become the central crop area,” said Rieux.
Garden classes were conducted on straw bales at first that were handy shelters from the relentless trade winds. “I was just out standing in the field, literally in a wind tunnel. You could sit behind the bale and get out of the wind and you could still hear me talk. At first we just talked about it because we didn't have any tools and we didn't have any water and we didn't have a tool shed and we just kind of imagined what it could look like. It was just kids in a field,” said Rieux.
Initially funded by Slow Foods, the garden seemed to take on a life of its own, reaching out to the community. “Nan Pi`ianaia was really welcoming. She introduced me to Alice and Ichiro Yamaguchi. They have that beautiful garden across from where Lex Brodie used to be and they brought over our first eight kalo huli,” said Rieux. And just as the kalo once planted becomes the parent to successive generations, the garden ohana evolved. “Community involvement and that whole idea of life bringing life. The more established the garden gets the more people come and they bring whatever their skills and their talents and their interests are,” said Rieux.
But the real magic came with the students. “I remember Miss Takamoto's sixth graders with picks just starting off this whole new area and in a year it looked like a completely different place to them and they were so proud of it.” Beginning with open invitations to any classes who wanted to participate, by 2010, the fifth anniversary, there was full participation by science, health, P.E. and tech classes and the garden had gone from a field to a rich haven of learning and health. Speaking at the celebration, then principal John Colson reflected, “If you look out here and you think it's beautiful, it is really beautiful. But that beauty is a reflection of all of you students and the work that you've done.”
“When we first started I felt like the tailor in the Emperor’s New Clothes. I would tell people, it's going to be great and they were like, uh huh.” But the actual seed for the garden was the work of Waimea Naturopath, Michelle Suber who wanted to contribute to the health of the community she had come to love.
“She came to the Edible School Yard and spent two weeks with us. She spent time in the garden, in the kitchen classroom, with the executive director, principal and the teachers. She was trying to replicate it,” said Rieux. Two years later and a chance email to Suber and Amanda found herself planted in an as yet imaginary garden.
“You have to know where you are before you know where you’re going,” said Holly Sergeant-Green, Mala’ai garden teacher and much like the first Polynesians who arrived in the islands, close observation of the land and natural systems was the first order of the day. “You first try to look at it and you watch how the weather patterns are and what the rain fall is and all those things and you see what's already there. Almost immediately I started doing some work with Pua Case and that whole sense of what this place means,” added Rieux.
They listened and the land spoke to them. “We had a blessing pretty early on with Dean Kalka. We had probably a hundred people and we had no idea where we were going to be centered in this little piece of land but [as it happens], we were all standing around what was to become the central crop area,” said Rieux.
Garden classes were conducted on straw bales at first that were handy shelters from the relentless trade winds. “I was just out standing in the field, literally in a wind tunnel. You could sit behind the bale and get out of the wind and you could still hear me talk. At first we just talked about it because we didn't have any tools and we didn't have any water and we didn't have a tool shed and we just kind of imagined what it could look like. It was just kids in a field,” said Rieux.
Initially funded by Slow Foods, the garden seemed to take on a life of its own, reaching out to the community. “Nan Pi`ianaia was really welcoming. She introduced me to Alice and Ichiro Yamaguchi. They have that beautiful garden across from where Lex Brodie used to be and they brought over our first eight kalo huli,” said Rieux. And just as the kalo once planted becomes the parent to successive generations, the garden ohana evolved. “Community involvement and that whole idea of life bringing life. The more established the garden gets the more people come and they bring whatever their skills and their talents and their interests are,” said Rieux.
But the real magic came with the students. “I remember Miss Takamoto's sixth graders with picks just starting off this whole new area and in a year it looked like a completely different place to them and they were so proud of it.” Beginning with open invitations to any classes who wanted to participate, by 2010, the fifth anniversary, there was full participation by science, health, P.E. and tech classes and the garden had gone from a field to a rich haven of learning and health. Speaking at the celebration, then principal John Colson reflected, “If you look out here and you think it's beautiful, it is really beautiful. But that beauty is a reflection of all of you students and the work that you've done.”
Not only does the garden produce up to three tons of food a year, but the students have created their own learning laboratory where they can engage in authentic learning experiences. “I coordinate with the science teachers with what the students are learning in the e science program, so every [garden] lesson is relevant to what they are learning in class,” said Sergeant-Green, garden teacher and resident science maven. This connection will become even stronger in two years when construction of the new STEM building will be completed. It will be situated adjacent to the garden and its doors will open out into a tangible world of wonder.
For students, there are also some big confidence building life lessons. “One of the things that the kids thought was valuable working out here was team work. You figure out how to work together and you see that you can do more work when you're working together. That's so important that they're recognizing it,” said Alethea Lai, executive director since 2010. With their participation in such events as the Super Kitchen, students also come to understand that they are valuable contributing members of the community. “The most important thing that we can do is to empower our kids to feel like leaders in the community and to recognize that they have a role, they have knowledge, they have skills, and that they're valuable,”said Rieux. “But a big mark of success is that the kids like it. They want to be here. We have very few discipline issues.”
For students, there are also some big confidence building life lessons. “One of the things that the kids thought was valuable working out here was team work. You figure out how to work together and you see that you can do more work when you're working together. That's so important that they're recognizing it,” said Alethea Lai, executive director since 2010. With their participation in such events as the Super Kitchen, students also come to understand that they are valuable contributing members of the community. “The most important thing that we can do is to empower our kids to feel like leaders in the community and to recognize that they have a role, they have knowledge, they have skills, and that they're valuable,”said Rieux. “But a big mark of success is that the kids like it. They want to be here. We have very few discipline issues.”
In the beginning Rieux was the sole staff member, supported by board members: Jan Dean, Sandy Barr, Vivienne Aronowitz, Roen Hufford, Ben Disco, Patti Cook and Holly Sargent-Green. Sergeant-Green, previously a marine biologist, and initially a parent volunteer, became a contracted staff member in 2008. With this year’s Food Corp volunteer Seri Niiimi-Burch, there are now three and a half staff members and it’s estimated that the garden has served about 2500 students over the last ten years.
Although there have been pretty lean times over the years, the belief in the work of the garden has sustained it. “What has been really gratifying and really hard at the same time is just growing trust and belief with this work with the land and the kids and the trust that we will do it with the greatest respect and care for the kids and the culture and the land,” said Rieux. The lessons of the garden also send shoots out that encircle the wider community. “The students on the land cultivate a deeper sense of land stewardship, healthy eating, life-long learning, cultural relevance and joy. Their families hear it and as people are drawn here, there's all this learning that waves back in,” added Rieux.
Financial support is another kind of wave that flows into the garden. In 2007 Mala`ai got non-profit status and began fund raising with their annual Art and Sol event, coming up on April 12. The garden has provided the opportunity for the broader community to contribute to the effort, creating a sense of solidarity.
“The people who support us monetarily are not for the most part the parents of the kids who go to this school. And that's amazing. It makes us a stronger community all together,” said Lai.
Mala’ai has also become a model garden for the broader educational community and with the support of the Kohala Center and such educators as Nancy Redfeather and Koh Ming Wei the Hawaii Island School Garden Network and the Ku Aina Pa program were created.
“Early on the Rocky Mountain Institute did a feasibility study on how to make Hawaii Island sustainable. One thing they thought there should be a focus on is education around gardening and food. So we met and wanted to know what would be the best way to move this forward and the School Garden Network came from that and out of that came Ku Aina Pa, which is making sure that we're supporting teachers and that the level of teaching in gardens is excellent. If we're really going to create the change that we're talking to our students about, then it has to be on a wider level than just here,” explained Rieux.
The most recent Super Kitchen event was a collaboration between Na Kalai Waa and Malaai, inspired by Chadd Paishon’s query, “Is it possible in this day and age for this island to provision one canoe?” This is a vital question for the sustainability of our entire island that Malaai Garden and many burgeoning efforts are striving to answer. “We talked to the students, we talked to the teachers, we talked to community members and we talked to farmers. People felt that the issues of food security and self-sufficiency were just as critical if not more,”said Lai.
After ten years, it’s clear that Malaai is here to stay. It takes a garden to sustain a community but it also takes a community to sustain a garden and again this community has shown what happens when e lauhoe waa (we all paddle together).
Although there have been pretty lean times over the years, the belief in the work of the garden has sustained it. “What has been really gratifying and really hard at the same time is just growing trust and belief with this work with the land and the kids and the trust that we will do it with the greatest respect and care for the kids and the culture and the land,” said Rieux. The lessons of the garden also send shoots out that encircle the wider community. “The students on the land cultivate a deeper sense of land stewardship, healthy eating, life-long learning, cultural relevance and joy. Their families hear it and as people are drawn here, there's all this learning that waves back in,” added Rieux.
Financial support is another kind of wave that flows into the garden. In 2007 Mala`ai got non-profit status and began fund raising with their annual Art and Sol event, coming up on April 12. The garden has provided the opportunity for the broader community to contribute to the effort, creating a sense of solidarity.
“The people who support us monetarily are not for the most part the parents of the kids who go to this school. And that's amazing. It makes us a stronger community all together,” said Lai.
Mala’ai has also become a model garden for the broader educational community and with the support of the Kohala Center and such educators as Nancy Redfeather and Koh Ming Wei the Hawaii Island School Garden Network and the Ku Aina Pa program were created.
“Early on the Rocky Mountain Institute did a feasibility study on how to make Hawaii Island sustainable. One thing they thought there should be a focus on is education around gardening and food. So we met and wanted to know what would be the best way to move this forward and the School Garden Network came from that and out of that came Ku Aina Pa, which is making sure that we're supporting teachers and that the level of teaching in gardens is excellent. If we're really going to create the change that we're talking to our students about, then it has to be on a wider level than just here,” explained Rieux.
The most recent Super Kitchen event was a collaboration between Na Kalai Waa and Malaai, inspired by Chadd Paishon’s query, “Is it possible in this day and age for this island to provision one canoe?” This is a vital question for the sustainability of our entire island that Malaai Garden and many burgeoning efforts are striving to answer. “We talked to the students, we talked to the teachers, we talked to community members and we talked to farmers. People felt that the issues of food security and self-sufficiency were just as critical if not more,”said Lai.
After ten years, it’s clear that Malaai is here to stay. It takes a garden to sustain a community but it also takes a community to sustain a garden and again this community has shown what happens when e lauhoe waa (we all paddle together).
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