In working, One learns.
Our programs offer dynamic, hands-on learning activities that nurture our participants' success — in education and in life — while contributing to healthy families and a vibrant local community.
Hāna Build
Our Building Program Hāna Build has three components: in-school woodshop classes, after-school and intersession employment, and post-high graduate apprenticeships. Each year, approximately 40 high school students and 10 graduate apprentices are engaged through hands-on training in construction projects that include handicap improvements for those in need, kūpuna cottages, alternative energy systems, educational facilities for Hāna High and Elementary School and local nonprofits, and urgent community needs as they arise.
Mahele Farm
Mahele Farm's primary activities include training farm apprentices, assisting our School Garden initiative, and hosting weekly and monthly community workdays and community events. Activities include all aspects of a fully-operational organic farm, producing approximately 2,000 pounds of produce each month—100% of which is distributed to our community. Mahele Farm teaches youth the ‘āina wisdom of their elders, creating a spirit of unity and belonging.
Mālama Hāloa
Our Mālama Hāloa program reconnects youth and their ʻohana with traditional Native Hawaiian foods and the cultural practices surrounding them, using these activities: kuʻi ‘ai sessions at Hāna School where students hand pound taro into traditional paʻiʻai, kapa making, and Makahiki season ceremony and games. Community members, staff, and students also participate in poi board and stone carving workshops. Through the guidance of kūpuna and generational kalo farmers, this program helped to restore over 30 wetland kalo patches in Wailua Nui.
kahu ʻai pono
Kahu ʻAi Pono is a culinary program that tandems with farming operations at Mahele Farm, kuʻi ʻai activities with Mālama Hāloa, and on-campus gardens. Students and apprentices attain specific skills for processing ʻāina-based, local foods, and an appreciation for the healthy lands they necessitate, as youth farm ingredients of their own. The preparation of value-added products and specialties taps into generations-old knowledge, grounds and connects youth to Native Hawaiian culture, and prepares them for career opportunities supporting local agriculture.
Program images captured by Shandelle Nakanelua
Hand-carved pohaku (stone) by Shalia, created during the Ho‘omohala Initiative
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