"Look at our island and you will see new school gardens springing up everywhere. And where school gardens flourish, young minds flourish, and so do our communities. The Hawai‘i Island School Garden network is a thriving example of our community’s ability to recognize assets that might have gone unnoticed—in this case, gardens that had begun to go fallow—and to build on those assets to meet community needs. School gardens provide interactive and meaningful educational experiences while engaging island youth in growing their own food. Beyond this, they stimulate interest in mathematics and science, encourage healthier diets, build interest and skill in the agricultural sciences, move our communities toward greater food self-reliance, connect food production with the larger concept of healthy ecosystems, and help us to develop a more diversified and sustainable economy."

Roberta Fujimoto Chu,
President of the Board of Directors

Read The Kohala Center’s 2009 Annual Report.

Read The Kohala Center’s 2008 Annual Report.