PANAʻEWA RESILIENCY &
AGRICULTURAL INNOVATION HUB
The long-term community goal for KPFA community members is for our community members to come together in our own ‘place and space’ for resources and programming and to grow food for sustenance and economic food security.
The long-term goal includes:
- A resilient structure with a commercial kitchen to provide keiki to kupuna programming and agricultural training and to develop agricultural demonstration projects to establish sustainability and economic food security for the community as well as provide our own community care to prepare for, during and after disasters and emergent community crisis periods.
- Agricultural demonstration projects to include the continuation and expansion of our hydroponics hub and a polyforestry area and community garden to showcase growing our own foods for self-sustainability and economic food security.
- A community cooperative for machinery that can be used on our farm lots to clear our land and engage in farming activities.
The initial long-term community goal was identified by KPFA community members through a series of community strategic planning workshops which initially began in 2016 with the DHHL Regional Plan workshops. The workshops were led by DHHL staff and KPFA community members present agreed that a agricultural training center was its top priority.
The goal was for the training center to synergistically combine with KPFA’s existing farmers market and our existing hydroponics training hub. The training center would offer agricultural training and demonstration programs which would support KPFA members to start small with subsistence agriculture to feed their ‘ohana for economic food security and self-sufficiency. For homesteaders who were interested, we would provide programming so they could ‘scale up’ to commercial agriculture to supplement family income.
In 2018 and 2019, KPFA facilitated its own community driven strategic planning workshops to include broader community participation than the DHHL led meetings.. KPFA engaged in two-fold outreach efforts to engage the entire community. Invitations were provided in the KPFA newsletter that is distributed to 200+ KPFA households with mailing addresses and invitations were emailed to KPFA’s 180+ member email distribution list.
Based on the strategic planning meetings, the community selected a Resilient Permanent Structure as the top priority. A certified kitchen was selected as the 1st Top Facility Use. In addition, keiki to kupuna culturally based programming and agricultural training were selected as prioritized facility uses. The addition of agricultural demonstration projects is aligned with the agricultural training and priority focus on sustainability and economic food security.
In 2020 and 2021, KPFA received Cares Act Funds, Foundation Grants and collaborated with partner nonprofits to respond directly to and provide resources for our community members impacted by COVID. We provided meal distribution and meal delivery, PPE, on-site COVID Safe internet services, keiki backpacks and a myriad of other resources. We realized that we were the only hub directly and intimately serving our community. We also realized that it was critical to integrate resiliency and disaster preparedness & response into the facility we would build for our community.
Based on our strategic community-driven priorities, our island experience with the last hurricane and volcano destruction, and our experience with COVID community impacts, the KPFA Board of Directors implemented a series of planning steps to facilitate the development of the Pana'ewa Resiliency Hub & Agricultural Innovation Center.
In October 2021, with that talented staff from G70, KPFA completed our Master Plan that will include our Hub and agricultural innovation sites.
In March 2022, we were awarded a $85,000 DHHL grant to complete our environmental assessment for the 10.63 acre site.
In April 2022, KPFA President Maile Lu'uwai will present our Master Plan to the Hawaiian Homes Commission and submit our long term lease application for the site.
Stay Tuned As We Holomua!!!
