Progress 08/15/11 to 08/14/13

Outputs
Target Audience: Target audiences for final year of project continue to include all members of the Kalihi Valley community, ranging from prenatal to the elderly. Focus groups, surveys, and first-hand discussions identified a desire within the Kalihi community to learn knowledge and skills surrounding traditional birthing practices for various ethnic groups. This led to development of a 6-week pilot birthing curriculum to meet this need. Children and youth participate at Ho’oulu ‘Aina through school visits, while their parents engage through monthly community workdays. These participants were targeted for the community surveys and focus groups. The KKV’s Elder Services program provided valuable feedback in this planning process through interviews and surveys. Holding vast knowledge of traditional foods and farming practices, these elders expressed interest in wants to learning even more about planting and gardening, cooking the foods they grow, and continuing their cultural practices around these foods. Putting these interests into action, our elders have been leaders in restoring Kalihi Valley’s food system through small gardens at their Elder Services center as well as working in Ho’oulu ‘Aina’s gardens. Changes/Problems: Results of the previously reported Community Food Security Survey and focus groups identified disconnect and lack of knowledge between ‘aina (land) and table. Community members reported limited access to fresh fruits and vegetables and limited access to grow food and provide food for their families. In responses to community need, new infrastructure was created as an approach to further address the issues of the community and expand on previous program activities and offerings. During the final grant period, a commercial kitchen was opened in KKV’s Wellness Center which continues to provide an additional resource to Kalihi community members for increased access to healthy, organic, and locally grown produce in addition to increasing awareness of the types of quick and easy to prepare meals that can be created from locally available food resources. In addition, planter boxes were installed for the KKV Elder Services program. These boxes serve to help Kalihi community elders have increased control of their food system. While Ho’oulu ‘Aina Nature Park continues to provide gardening and harvesting opportunities for community seniors, the new on-site structures provide increased access for seniors who may have difficulties attending regular off-site gardening sessions. Finally, the new partnership with the Office of Hawaiian Affairs (OHA) has provided opportunities to further expand nutrition and cooking education to the Kalihi community through the Ehuola 'Ohana Health Project. Monthly events and newsletters serve to educate youth and their 'ohana (family) on how to prepare healthy meals together as a family and to strengthen the ‘aina to table connection. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? Orientation workdays atHo’oulu ‘Aina Nature Park and volunteer opportunities in our community farmer’s market events serve to provide many opportunities for professional development for students enrolled in the University of Hawaii Nursing Program. These opportunities enabling students to strengthen their relationship with the community they will professionally serve in the future. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? Dissemination of information and results of programs continues to be an important part of these projects. Through educational activities for various cultures and age groups, programming is structured to encourage participants to disseminate information they have learned to their friends, family, and other community members. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? Nothing Reported

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? A series of over 5 focus groups initiated discussion among community residents, KKV staff, and other community partners, including Department of Health, local schools, and representatives from other community centers and community service programs (Palama Settlement, Susana Wesley, Keiki O Ka 'Aina Family Learning Centers) (Goals 2 and 3). Focus groups served to inform planning on how to increase community access to local foods, and health education opportunities (Goal 1). At the end of the USDA planning process, we were able to leverage a CDC grant to help continue our community planning efforts. Two community meetings were held during June 2013 as a part of our Strive grant, awarded through the CDC’s REACH initiative (Goal 3). These meetings served to introduce plans to build a community garden in the Kalihi public housing community (Goals 1 and 2). These meetings more importantly gathered input of the community vision of what the garden should look like, what vegetables would best be utilized in the community, and strategies to successfully implement the garden project (Goals 1 and 2). Additionally, through Strive, a farmer’s market tour was held on June 22, 2013. This event provided an opportunity for community members to get to know local vendors/farmers and learn more about local produce, taste free produce samples, and participate in educational cooking demonstrations (Goals 1 and 2). Taking the information obtained from many successful community-based planning meetings, a large variety of community pilot projects and events were initiated to start implementation of the community’s vision of health as identified from initial planning (Goal 2). With focus on planning, the addition of piloting programs allows for building capacity in the community surrounding food and growing. Furthermore, piloting allows for continuous feedback from community participants to better address community need and for continued growth and revision of the planning process to address community food systems (Goal 1). To address the community interest in traditional birthing practices identified in our initial planning process, we are developing and finalizing an ‘Ai Pono (healthy eating) program that addresses nourishment during all parts of life (Goal 1). Parts of this ‘Ai Pono program have been incorporated into a 6-week pilot birthing curriculum. This curriculum presents information including ‘Ai Pono (healthy eating while pregnant), breastfeeding, Hawaiian herbal medicine, and birthing positions and massage, in addition to other useful topics. Implementation of this 6-week pilot curriculum was successful in addressing community need to view food as not just vegetables on a plate, but as a tool to merge healthy eating into a cultural lifestyle while building community and family ties (Goals 1 and 2). As a result of this success, a final birthing curriculum will be implemented in the future to continue to offer needed services to community members (Goal 2). Raised planter boxes were built for KKV Elders Program members on-site at their center (Goal 2). These not only provide the opportunity for elders to strengthen relationships with each other and the land and food production, but also helps to secure access to food resources for the center and its members (Goal 2). Additionally, elders can work together to plan the types of foods that would best serve their group (Goals 1 and 2). Community workdays at Ho’oulu ‘Aina Nature Park held on the 1stWednesday and 3rdSaturday of every month serve to strengthen community members’ connections to each other and KKV. Individuals have the opportunity to work the land beside their neighbors and KKV staff (Goal 2). KKV staff attend the weekly Kalihi Farmer’s market and are able to provide price matching assistance which enables community members to use their EBT dollars to purchase healthy, local produce. Feedback from a repeat customer visiting our market demonstrates how this program helps to secure food resources. “Thank you so much, this program lets me buy fruits and veggies I can’t afford in the store.” (Goal 2). The Ehuola ‘Ohana Health Project was initiated after forming a partnership with the Office of Hawaiian Affairs (OHA) to serve the need to build connections between families, land, and food with a focus on foods and activities that highlight culture (Goals 1 and 3). Program participants have reported a decrease in fast food consumption with a corresponding increase in preparation and consumption of meals at home. Monthly gatherings sponsored by this program help to establish and strengthen relationships between participating families and provide an additional support system to continue their connection to healthy foods and activities (Goal 2).

Publications

Progress 08/15/11 to 08/14/12

Outputs
OUTPUTS: A series of focus groups, interviews and surveys engaging over 170 community members has provided valuable insight and enabled Roots to begin shaping several "food-shed" activities reconnecting people to the land. To analyze community food assets and needs, five focus groups were organized between March and July 2012 to delve deeper into issues of food-security as well as to discuss visions for commercial kitchen use. These included participants from the Micronesian (14) and Samoan (14) communities, students from Farrington High School (8), and a "Super Aunties" group attended by Roots' partners and senior Kokua Kalihi Valley (KKV) Staff. Topics discussed included frequency of home-cooked meals, regularity of fruit and vegetable consumption, resources identified as necessary for improving family health, cultural food traditions (in general and specifically regarding pregnancy and motherhood), accessibility of traditional foods and produce in Hawaii, and the difficulty of passing knowledge down to younger generations. These focus groups helped to identify the strengths and the needs of the different community ethnic population. KKV completed the Community Food Security Survey with students from the University of Hawaii School of Nursing in August 2011. 78 students were surveyed about their connections to land, food, and health. Six students from the University of Hawaii Community Health Department surveyed traditional food consumption of 27 Filipinos in Kalihi. Students researched social factors, government policies, availability and affordability of traditional foods, and food security. Twelve educators from Keiki O Ka Aina Family Learning Centers in Kalihi Valley were also surveyed to gain better perspective of their needs regarding educating students about healthy food choices. Survey questions addressed perceived challenges to healthy eating, topics related to nutrition and health that they wanted to teach their students and families, and healthy recipes they were interested in learning to cook. Two nutrition education workshops were developed based on their answers to above knowledge and skills for KKV staff. PARTICIPANTS: Kaiulani Odom, PD/PI, ROOTS Program Coordinator: Project Director Jesse Lipman, Food Programs Coordinator: Co-Project Director Mary Lee: Project Evaluator Sarah Kunkel, Mele Kalama-Kingma: Roots Program Staff Kealohi Lucas, Tasia Yamamura: Graduate students Innocenta Kiku, Rebecca Seomalu: Interpreters Adam Zaslow, Reggae, Jessica Higgins: Organic Farmers Current partners 1. Farrington High School 2. Halau Lokahi 3. Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources (DLNR)- Plans resulting from this project that are relevant to the development of Hooulu Aina will be shared with the State Parks in order to solicit support and authorization of these plans. 4. Kapiolani Community College (KCC) 5. Office of Hawaiian Affairs (OHA 6. Punana Leo o Honolulu 7. University of Hawaii Nursing Program 8. SNAP-ED 9. Wholesome Wave TARGET AUDIENCES: This program's target audience includes all members of the Kalihi Valley community, from prenatal to the elderly. Through informal conversations, it was observed that there is a desire within the Kalihi community to learn knowledge and skills surrounding traditional birthing practices for various ethnic groups. A 6-week pilot program was implemented between Sept. and Oct. 2012 and covered topics such as Hawaiian herbal medicinal practices, Ai Pono (healthy eating while pregnant), birthing positions and massage, and breastfeeding, among other topics. Feedback from this pilot appears to indicate a growing interest and need for similar programming. Children and youth participate at Hooulu Aina through school visits, while their parents engage through community work days. These participants were targeted for the community surveys and focus groups. Finally, elders in KKV's Elder Services program provided valuable feedback in this planning process through interviews and surveys. Holding vast knowledge of traditional foods and farming practices, these elders have been leaders in restoring Kalihi valley's food system through small gardens at their Elder Services center as well as working in Hooulu Aina's gardens. PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: The planning process has enabled KKV to gain a greater understanding of the community's food needs, as well as to develop culturally tailored food production and culinary programs. The results of the Community Food Security Surveys showed a great disconnect and lack of knowledge between aina (land) and table. Among focus group participants, most who work at or below poverty level claimed the biggest challenges are limited access to fresh fruits and vegetables, limited access to grow food, and limited resources to provide families. These valuable findings further reinforce the need for more programming focused on reconnecting the community to the land and growing, preparing, and sharing food. In light of this research, the project's focus will now transition from researching current food systems and ways to strengthen food security to addressing the issues of poverty and unemployment in Kalihi. Further research must be done to evaluate what competency-based skills are most needed within this community. The vision is to use the newly built commercial kitchen in KKV's Wellness Center for future employment in the culinary and gardening fields. Preliminary research also indicates a need for short-term modules in engaging community members. These modules will amplify the community's capacity to develop a food system of their own. This will be taken into consideration in planning programs for this upcoming year.

Impacts
Community members gain increased understanding of and appreciation for the cultures of Kalihi Valley (around food)- One common finding in the focus groups was the notion that younger generations were not being taught traditional food customs. As a result of this, a four-part workshop was organized to assist the Micronesian community in passing down knowledge about one of their food traditions, preparing food in an omw. This type of programming provides a powerful vehicle for preserving knowledge, as well as greater pride, understanding, and appreciation for other cultures of Kalihi Valley University students gain experience and interest in working with a diverse community-The University of Hawaii School of Nursing continues to work together with Roots on broadening the perspective of the health and medical system. Students already in the program are given opportunities to do group research activities throughout KKV. Through this work and connection with the community, we hope to affect the way that they practice as a health professional. KKV gains a greater understanding of the community's needs and interests regarding food and food-based economic development opportunities- The "Super Aunties" focus group centered their discussion on planning and future for the newly built commercial kitchen. The vision is to use the newly built commercial kitchen in KKV's Wellness Center for future employment in the culinary and gardening fields. This input is being taken into account as we currently developing a business plan for the commercial kitchen. Community members talk more openly about food and traditional practices with one another, and with their medical providers- KKV hosts a number of community days throughout the year, which open to volunteers statewide and in particular for Kalihi residents. Through story telling and story sharing during hands-on malama aina engagement, individuals are given the opportunity to make connections to and strengthen relationships with the land, one another, and ultimately the greater Kalihi community. Community members take control of their food system- Through working onsite at the two-acre organic garden, community members are provided with resources and knowledge to take control and create a home food system of their own. The harvested produce is prepared for the day's meal and also shared with volunteers to take home. Surplus produce is regularly distributed to the KKV clinic, Gulick Elder Care Center, and various groups visiting the garden. The foundations of Kalihi Valley's food-shed are strengthened through enhanced partnerships and increased community and organizational capacity- A new partnership with the Office of Hawaiian Affairs (OHA) offers funding for the newly developed Ehuola Ohana Health Project, which aims to engage students in food-focused learning and educate them about food sovereignty. Information regarding nutrition, recipes, and upcoming events are disseminated monthly to keep families connected to the land and thinking about health. We are currently working with youth to meet the outcomes of more involvement in community food production and connected to their community.

Publications

• No publications reported this period