The County of Maui has awarded a total of $700,000 in grants to local nonprofits to support diversified agriculture and food security.
Mayor Michael Victorino and the county Office of Economic Development announced last week that it will fund programs at six Maui nonprofits:
Maui United Way will receive $360,000 for a project that helps small taro farmers build capacity, in an effort to feed the community and create new farm jobs.
The University of Hawaii College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources was awarded a $150,000 grant that will help 32 families in Hana, Lanai and Kula grow, harvest and prepare food from their own gardens.
Grow Some Good was granted $100,000 for the Maui School Garden Network. The farm-to-school program offers garden-based educational experiences for keiki, with the goal of bolstering the agricultural workforce.
BioBamboo Inc., doing business as Food Security Hawaii, will receive $35,000 for the Ohana Gardens project, which aims to help residents compost, grow orchards, prepare healthy food and more, with the goal of increasing food security.
Common Ground Collective has been granted $30,000 for an initiative that harvests food from residents’ yards and redistributes it to nonprofits or sells it to local businesses. The project aims to decrease the island’s reliance on imported food, and last year the effort yielded more than 42,000 pounds of food.
Maui Food Technology Center will get a $25,000 grant for the weekly Maui Sunday Market, which provides a venue for island food trucks, farmers and other food purveyors to showcase and sell their goods.
“By investing in agriculture, workforce development and indigenous farming we create a stronger local and green economy with living-wage jobs that support residents and their families,” Victorino said in a statement.
