Nurturing ag to fill Big Island need; Keeping kupuna fed; Sustainable ag systems; Aina Aloha Economic Futures Declaration; Updates on Hawaii arts groups; Kupuna wisdom
Nurturing ag to fill Big Island need
Hawaii Food Basket, the Big Island's central food pantry, has been building local food contacts for some time and it's helping them fill the need, now more than ever.
Keeping kupuna fed
Disaster preparedness experts have worried for years about Hawaii's food security, warning that importing 90 percent of our food makes us dangerously vulnerable. Daniela Spoto Kittinger of the Hawaii Appleseed Center for Law and Economic Justice tells us why Hawaii's kupuna are among the most at risk for hunger during this COVID-19 disruption.Click hereto read Hawaii Appleseed Center's Feeding Our Kupuna report.
Remembering Willie K
Native Hawaiian musician Willie K passed away this week. We remember the man and his music.
Sustainable ag systems
Like fairy rings after a patch of damp weather, circles of common interest are cropping up across Hawaii's economic and social landscape. People are banding together to strategize a better futures as we emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic. Albie Miles, assistant professor of Sustainable Ag Systems at the University of Hawaii West oahu, talks to us about food security in Hawaii. Click here for more of Albie Miles on community food sovereignty during COVID-19.
Aina Aloha Economic Futures Declaration
Another local hui, or interest group, is forming around traditional Hawaiian values. Kamana Beamer, an associate professor jointly with the University of Hawaii Richardson School of Law and the Hawaiinuiakea School of Hawaiian Knowledge, and Noe Noe Wong Wilson, executive director of the Lalakea Foundation, tells us about the Aina Aloha Economic Futures Declaration, which puts relationships with the land at the center of a new socio-economic system in Hawaii. Click here to learn more and provide your input.
Updates on Hawaii arts groups
Checking in with the Hawaii Arts Alliance, Hawaii Symphony and Village Hui. Hawaii Arts Alliance, the only statewide arts advocacy group, received $60,600 in federal CARES Act funding to cover more than 2 months of expenses. They've also started a Creative Network database. Click here to learn more about the network. The Hawaii Symphony Orchestra is also leveraging CARES Act funding - it received $750,000 to make it through the current season. No brass or woodwinds being played through little zippers in the musicians' masks, although they are looking at future performances, and the under the stars concert at the Waikiki Shell could happen. The Village Hui, a group of mainly Kakaako based makers and eateries, are offering a weekly collaboration. For $25, you get Sunday brunch for 2 and a chance at a gift bag from local small businesses. Click here to learn more at ward2go.com.
Kupuna wisdom
Harry Meyer was born in Illinois in 1929 during the Great Depression. He served in the Korean War then moved to Hawaii in 1950. He hobnobbed with Honolulu Mayor Neal Blaisdell, entrepreneur Henry Kaiser and other members of Honolulu's in-crowd. He owned and operated the Hawaiiana Hotel in Waikiki for decades before retiring and moving to the California desert in 2000. Now 91, he sent a note of kupuna wisdom to his seven children, in light of the upheaval caused by the coronavirus.
