PANAʻEWA RESILIENCE &
AGRICULTURAL INNOVATION HUB
Our Panaʻewa Reslience and Agricultural Innovation Hub (Panaʻewa Hub) is located on a 10.66 acre site at 363 Railroad Avenue. The Pana'ewa Hub provides a farmers market, agricultural workshops, community programs and resources for our Hawaiian Homestead community and stakeholders.
Since 2018, our programs, services, and resources have reached over 8,000+ participants. Our new project , Keaʻahuli O Panaʻewa, will establish a food forest — a species-rich, multilayered poly-forestry system and climate dashboard - in partnership with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
The Panaʻewa Hub was identified as the #1 strategic priority by KPFA community members via a series of community strategic planning workshops which initially began in 2016 with the DHHL Regional Plan meetings.
In 2018 and 2019, KPFA facilitated its own community-driven strategic planning workshops to include broader community participation than the DHHL led meetings. Via these strategic planning meetings, the community selected a resilient permanent structure as our top strategic priority. A certified kitchen was selected as the 1st Top Facility Use.
The Panaʻewa Hub purpose is twofold. First, in accordance with KPFA’s community driven strategic plan, the Panaʻewa Hub will be our own ‘space and place’; a community serving facility with a commercial kitchen and facilities for keiki to kūpuna programming; agricultural training; and include agricultural demonstration areas to include the continuation and expansion of our hydroponics hub, a polyforestry food forest and community garden to grow our own food for self-sustainability and economic food security.
Second, the Panaʻewa Hub, in its design and capacity, can be activated to support the community, coordinate communication and resources, and ensure that physical and social needs can be met in preparation of, during, and post-recovery of a natural disaster or pandemic related event. The primary resources will include water, food security, off-grid energy production, access to clean drinking water, emergency communication technologies, storage for emergency equipment, and training for disaster preparedness and response. Our island experience with hurricanes, the Kilauea volcano destruction, COVID community impacts, and the uncertainty of climate change made us realize that integrating disaster preparedness & response into the Panaʻewa Hub was a critical component.
From 2020 to 2022, KPFA received Cares Act Funds, Foundation Grants and collaborated with partner nonprofits to respond directly to and provide resources for our community impacted by COVID. We provided meal distribution and meal delivery, PPE, on-site COVID Safe internet services, keiki backpacks and a myriad of other vital community resources. From this experience, we realized that we were the only community resource directly and intimately serving our community.
Based on our strategic community-driven priorities, the KPFA Board of Directors implemented the following planning steps to facilitate the development of the Panaʻewa Hub:
**A special mahalo to our consultant & design partner, G70, and DHHL Staff for their hard work throughout this process**
Stay Tuned As We Holomua!!
Since 2018, our programs, services, and resources have reached over 8,000+ participants. Our new project , Keaʻahuli O Panaʻewa, will establish a food forest — a species-rich, multilayered poly-forestry system and climate dashboard - in partnership with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
The Panaʻewa Hub was identified as the #1 strategic priority by KPFA community members via a series of community strategic planning workshops which initially began in 2016 with the DHHL Regional Plan meetings.
In 2018 and 2019, KPFA facilitated its own community-driven strategic planning workshops to include broader community participation than the DHHL led meetings. Via these strategic planning meetings, the community selected a resilient permanent structure as our top strategic priority. A certified kitchen was selected as the 1st Top Facility Use.
The Panaʻewa Hub purpose is twofold. First, in accordance with KPFA’s community driven strategic plan, the Panaʻewa Hub will be our own ‘space and place’; a community serving facility with a commercial kitchen and facilities for keiki to kūpuna programming; agricultural training; and include agricultural demonstration areas to include the continuation and expansion of our hydroponics hub, a polyforestry food forest and community garden to grow our own food for self-sustainability and economic food security.
Second, the Panaʻewa Hub, in its design and capacity, can be activated to support the community, coordinate communication and resources, and ensure that physical and social needs can be met in preparation of, during, and post-recovery of a natural disaster or pandemic related event. The primary resources will include water, food security, off-grid energy production, access to clean drinking water, emergency communication technologies, storage for emergency equipment, and training for disaster preparedness and response. Our island experience with hurricanes, the Kilauea volcano destruction, COVID community impacts, and the uncertainty of climate change made us realize that integrating disaster preparedness & response into the Panaʻewa Hub was a critical component.
From 2020 to 2022, KPFA received Cares Act Funds, Foundation Grants and collaborated with partner nonprofits to respond directly to and provide resources for our community impacted by COVID. We provided meal distribution and meal delivery, PPE, on-site COVID Safe internet services, keiki backpacks and a myriad of other vital community resources. From this experience, we realized that we were the only community resource directly and intimately serving our community.
Based on our strategic community-driven priorities, the KPFA Board of Directors implemented the following planning steps to facilitate the development of the Panaʻewa Hub:
- October 2021- Master Plan Completed - With community stakeholders, KPFA completed a 299-page Master Plan that incorporated the Panaʻewa Hub facility and agricultural areas.
- July 2023 - The FONSI/Environmental Assessment was approved by the Hawaiian Homes Commission on June 26, 2023 and published in the July 8, 2023 State of Hawai'i Environmental Notice.
- September 2023 - The HRS 6E-42 & 6E-08(b) Historic Preservation Review process is being completed.
- Next Steps: Complete the Panaʻewa Hub architectural and engineering plans to identify construction costs.
**A special mahalo to our consultant & design partner, G70, and DHHL Staff for their hard work throughout this process**
Stay Tuned As We Holomua!!
