Cheryse Kaui Sana has been farming for 16 years. She spends her days working the fields of MAʻO Organic Farms, nestled in the Lualualei Valley on the west side of Oʻahu.
One of the largest certified organic farms in Hawaiʻi, MAʻO produced 260,000 pounds of fruits and vegetables in 2020. Sana hopes to increase production even further.
Sana started as an intern at the farm through their youth leadership training, a two-year program for Hawaiʻi college students. Now she's their General Farm Manager.
Last year, Sana was recommended by a mentor and supporter of the farm that she apply for the Rockefeller Foundation-Acumen Food Systems Fellowship, a one year intensive leadership development program aimed to “reimagine ways of creating more inclusive, nourishing, and regenerative food systems.”
“I see the struggles that my community has in Waiʻanae, having access to good local and organic foods,” Sana said.
She was drawn to the program because she wanted to increase food production on a local scale and see the way people around the world were addressing food insecurity.
Sana has been in the program since April, where she has been participating in online workshops and seminars.
She and 18 other cohort members have been learning to create impacts in food systems and sharing their own knowledge and experiences.
“I wanted to also give Hawaiʻi’s manaʻo because I feel Hawaiʻi has some pretty cool movements in food systems. Historically the Hawaiian Islands were able to feed itself, so how do we … utilize people, place, history, moʻolelo and ʻāina to grow more food,” she said.
Today, Hawaiʻi imports the majority of its food, which increases the state's carbon footprint and leaves it vulnerable when out-of-state supply is affected by disasters.
Increasing state production and making a more self-reliant food system is something lawmakers have been working on for a decade.
Sana says she has gained a better understanding of the system and the many different facets that play into it.
She’s also found that Hawaiʻi doesn’t face issues alone — those in her cohort are facing some of the same systemic problems.
She said that “being able to connect, hear [challenges] in a different way with different perspectives and a different lens and a different voice,” bolsters her knowledge and helps her communicate with her community and the people she works with.
The program also gives her “an opportunity to be able to speak to funders, to speak to the larger group beyond the Hawaiʻi Lāhui, to speak to the world,” she said.
By the end of the program, Sana hopes that her perspective is broadened and that she can build solutions to current and future problems that Hawaiʻi’s food system may face.
