Ha Ha Ha!

Hawaii Community College and its Food Art

Incredible fruit carvings and sculpture by Chef Alan Okuda's culinary students at Hawai‘i Community College.

 

The Kids at Kua O Ka La Charter School

High school students from the charter school Kua O Ka La came to Hamakua Springs the other day on a field trip.

Richard talked about how great it was to connect with that school, which is located on the ocean at Pu‘ala‘a in Puna, right next to the Ahalanui warm pond. “They are off the grid and all their computers are run by solar,” he said. “They have composting toilets that are very sanitary. They live on, and with, the land. I really like their hands-on learning style. They live sustainability.”

From Kua O Ka La's website: 

Pu`ala`a is an intact ancient Hawaiian village complete with historical sites, fishponds, and native habitat that affords an ideal outdoor learning environment for our project-based curriculum.

Kimo Pa, the farm’s manager, told me that he and his wife Tracy Pa were surprised, and pleased, at how interested the students were.

“We told them about what Richard has been working on,” said Kimo, “wondering how we are going to adapt to the new way of doing business, and to the high cost of oil. I talked about how we looked into Peak Oil, studied it for a few years, to really understand it. And how Richard got to the point of looking at geothermal and how he can help the rest of the community.

“We told them we’ve been looking at our resources here. We had water, so we could make hydroelectric….

“I told them that Richard said, ‘What about our workers, the island, the state? What resources do we have that could help the rest of the people?’ That’s how he found geothermal. Now he’s working with Ku‘oko‘a. 

“They were really into that part, and had questions," he said. "This has to do with their community. They’re next to the warm pond. Why is that water hot? Because of the volcano.”

He told the students that our huge dependence on oil now has to do with the leaders we have picked over the years, and their decisions.

“I told them how important they are as an individual, and that it’s their responsibility to pick the leaders; that their vote counts, because they are the future leaders. That their decision making is for the generations under them.”

He showed the students the farm’s hydroponics system, the tomatoes, and the fish they are raising.

“And I explained that we are working with other farmers, and that we like to employ people from nearby," he said. "Working with other farmers, we can produce more food. We want to fit into the community and grow food for the area. It’s all about the sustainability – taking care of your neighbor, doing the right thing for your community so in the next generation, and the next generation, things don’t get worse.”

It's a perfect fit with the school’s vision:

Kua O Ka Lā has adopted the concept of `Ke Ala Pono – The Right Path – to describe our goal of nurturing and developing our youth. We believe that every individual has a unique potential and that it is our responsibility to help our students learn to work together within the local community to create a future that is pono – right.

- posted by Leslie Lang

 

Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act Also Helps Farmers

Richard Ha writes:

The Packer recently wrote about the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act:

Child nutrition bill is a ‘historic win’

Published on 12/02/2010 06:41PM

Legislation that seeks to transform school meals in large part by adding more fruits and vegetables has passed Congress.

The Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act reauthorizes federal child nutrition programs. The Senate passed the bill in August and the House approved it Dec. 2 by a margin 264 to 157.

The bill was sent to President Obama for his signature, the first major legislation to clear the lame duck session of Congress.

The act increases federal reimbursement for school lunches by six cents per meal, the first increase in more than 30 years. The addition is tied to increased servings of food consistent with dietary guidelines, including fruits and vegetables. Read more

In addition to being good for our nation's school kids, this Act will help Hawai‘i’s farmers sell produce to Hawai‘i’s school system.

This is something concrete that will help farmers make money. And, as we know: If the farmers make money, farmers will farm.

Hawai‘i Students Host Japan Students at Micro Robot Conference & Tournament

Richard Ha writes:

‘Imiloa Astronomy Center hosted the first International Micro Robot Conference and Tournament last month. 

Waiakea High School and ‘Iolani School hosted students and teachers who came from Ritsumeikan High School, a super science high school in Kyoto, Japan. Over two weeks, the Hawai‘i group took its peers hiking through Kilauea Iki Crater, star-gazing from Mauna Kea, to Coconut Island for an acoustic shrimp study, on an Atlantis submarine drive off Waikiki, and to presentations by astronomers, geologists and marine scientists.

In November, Waiakea High and ‘Iolani will each send a 5-student/1-teacher delegation to the 8th annual Ritsumeikan International Super Science Fair in Kyoto.

Also planned is a micro robot outreach programs on all islands, which introduces the LETry robot and other micro-mechanisms to participating teachers.

KTA’s program Living In Paradise: Science is fun has a YouTube video featuring Dave Olive and the Japanese students and teachers. It's the third segment on that video.

Pictures from the two weeks that the Waiakea and ‘Iolani students took the Japanese students around. Wow:

      

Robotics/Micro Mechanisms on the Big Island

The first Hawaii International Micro Robot Conference and Tournament will be held at ‘Imiloa Astronomy Center in Hilo from July 16 through 19, 2010. 

Art Kimura, Education Specialist for the Hawai‘i Space Grant Consortium at UH Manoa, says the conference is primarily to begin a discussion on how Big Island can benefit through micro mechanisms.

“Whether for R&D," he says, "for actual production, for prototyping, partnerships and relevant applications including medical, agriculture, security, etc. We are hoping this will be a catalyst for further interest in what would be a clean industry (since they are micro devices, the facilities are not large).”

Richard is very interested in this, and says that from a business perspective he can see micro manufacturing taking off on the Big Island where geothermal electricity would be cheap.

“Because it is small by volume," he says, "freight cost would not a large factor. The higher the input cost of electricity, the more competitive we become."

“This is a field where we could become world leaders,” he says.

Also, the University of Hawai‘i at Hilo is hosting the 9th Annual ROV Competition on June 24-26, 2010. This video describes the international student underwater robotics competition.

Hilo is the perfect location for the competition because this year's theme is underwater volcanoes. The event will be held at the Olympic-sized outdoor swimming pool at UH Hilo’s Student Life Center.

About 60 teams from all over the world are participating, including five from Hawaii:
•    Kapiolani Community College, Honolulu
•    Kealakehe Intermediate School, Kailua-Kona
•    Moanalua High School, Honolulu            
•    Highlands Intermediate School, Pearl City           
•    Hilo High School, Hilo   

ROVs are remotely operated vehicles, also known as underwater robots or robot submersibles. They've been in the news a lot lately because they're a critical tool in the attempts to manage the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Skilled ROV engineers and operators are needed in many marine technology industries that have importance in Hawaii, not just the oil and gas industry.

And they also have applications in science and exploration. For example: an ROV was used to explore the Marianas Trench, the deepest part of the ocean, and an ROV was used to discover the location of the sunken Titanic.

The competition helps students develop the technology, piloting and teamwork skills needed to design, build and operate an ROV in a "real-world" setting and exposes them to marine technology careers. And if they decide working on ROVs isn't right for them, they've still developed science, technology, engineering, math and teamwork skills that will be invaluable in any field.

The International Student ROV Competition is organized by the Marine Advanced Technology Education (MATE) center in Monterey, California.

Here is an email from Art Kimura about the 20th annual Future Flight Hawaii program:

From: Art Kimura

Sent: Sunday, June 20, 2010 2:46 PM

Subject: inspiring...the 20th annual Future Flight Hawaii program... misson complete

Aloha; Rene and I want to thank you all for being part of our 20 year journey....conceived and executed by a group of brave, perhaps naive on our part, 18 teachers in 1991, we are in awe of the teachers we have been privileged to work with.  We should remember our first "boss," George Mead, DBED Office of Space Industry, who trusted us to initiate this program, and to Patti Cook who introduced us to the opportunity.

Truth be told, the program was to have ended some 15 years ago when the Office of Space Industry was shut down; through being adopted by the Hawaii Space Grant Consortium (mahalo to all at Spaced Grant...Dr. Luke Flynn, Dr. Jeff Taylor, Dr. Peter Mouginis-Mark, Marcia Sistoso, Eric Pilger, Linda Martel, Lorna Ramiscal and others), we have managed to continue the program...significantly changed from the week long and weekend residential programs, these family engagement programs continue to be among the most requested programs to be sure.  We thank the University of Hawaii at Hilo (Chancellor Rose Tseng, and the UHH Conference Center) which provided the facilities and services in the initial years before the program moved to the Kilauea Military Camp, then expanded to Maui (thanks to Betty Brask), Kauai (thanks to Cheryl Shintani) and Oahu.  NASA specialists including Tom Gates, Greg Vogt, Cheick Diarra, Ota Lutz, Wayne Lee, David Seidel and others, HIGP scientists (Luke, Jeff, Scott Rowland and others), Gemini Telescope specialists (Peter Michaud, Janice Harvey), the UH College of Engineering, and many other community specialists and resources have contributed to the program.  We thank Creative Arts Hawaii for their long time support in designing the T shirts, bags and other materials that we have provided to the over 8,500 participants.

We have been honored to have worked with over 175 teachers as part of our mission control team, the summer institutes that we offered for credit and volunteers....they are truly educators with the right stuff.

How long do we continue is a frequently asked question....the initial goal of 10 years has long passed...then more recently, a personal goal was to have one of our grandchildren attend (oldest will not qualify for another 2 years)...but Morgan Nakamura who attended as a 4th grade student from Mililani in our first year, 1991, and who has been teaching business education at Pearl City High School (and is to be a state CTE resource teacher this fall), asked if we could continue the program for another 10 years...why? Morgan is to be married this October (Morgan brought her fiancee to the program and he passed the FF board of review) and she hopes her child will be able to attend.  So old folks like Rene/I will have to pull out our walking canes or better, pass the torch to a new generation, to continue it into the future. With NASA's vision of exploration changing under President Obama (no return to the moon), we will have to come up with new contextual themes to be sure.

We are grateful to you all for the engaging and creative lessons; we are always in awe of seeing how the lessons unfold under your imagination.....the paper roller coasters put the parents and children to work until late at night and there were amazing results on Sunday to be sure (thanks to Wendell, Arlene and Clyde)....the children surely enjoyed the special solar cooked snacks made in their own solar ovens (thanks to Glenn, Sylvia and Jan) ....the extensive mineral collection from Roger's personal treasure provide a college level experience for all (thanks ro Roger and Matt)....the worm decomposers modules were so engaging that even the squeamish were holding worms (of course Wendi's Connor told me that his mother would scream at the worms)...we hope the new annelid family members will be part of Earth's renewal and recycling (thanks to Colleen for drilling all the holes in the bins, to Cyndi for bringing your own annelid collection, and to Donna and Andrea), the planes were flying in the hall ways after the lessons on flight by Dale and Lani, you could drink contaminated liquids after the filtering of the liquids by Carole, Morgan and Joann, the polymer module added to their knowledge of how useful these materials are (thanks to Arlene, Wendell, Clyde) and students learned about leaves through the leaf identification lessons and fresh and dried leaves (thanks to Sylvia, Jan and Glenn).

We were so excited to see the debut of the newest Princess Teriyaki (how many have we had over the years)....Claire Sakata, daughter of Dennis, who spent two years in Japan in the JET program, and will be student teaching at Kapalama Elementary this fall, introduced her study of Japanese magic in such a dramatic way...Claire, please reserve October 16 to be on stage with Roger and Dale at the Astronaut Lacy Veach Day science magic program. The Space Science Magic brought back many memories of demonstrations from years past and the videos brought by Randal, Dennis and Dennis were amazing as well.  Thanks to everyone for your hard work.

Randal Lau has generously spent extraordinary time to post the 2010 graduation videos and other videos from our Future Flight archive on:

http://picasaweb.google.com/boar59/FutureFlightHawaiiVideos?authkey=Gv1sRgCK fyoaj4naDWYQ#

We hope it will provide everyone with great memories from this and from past years.

We are appreciative for the certificates of recognition from the State Senate presented by Senator Norman Sakamoto to Dr. Flynn, and from Governor Lingle, presented by Dr. Taylor, honors that reflect the long term commitment of all of the teachers and volunteers to develop creative and engaging lessons for the participants.

Future Flight Hawaii blasts off on our 21st annual program in June 2011 with an International Mission to Mars program.

We hope you will join us at:

July 17, 2010: Imiloa Astronomy Center, 6:30 p.m.-8:00 p.m.; public event for the 1st Hawaii Micro Robot Conference and Tournament: origami presentation by Hidenori Ishihara, robotics Professor, Kagawa University, Shikoku, Japan, and bipedal robot demonstrations by Risa Sato, student at Shizuoka High School, winner of 2009 Bipedal robot competition at Nagoya University, and Hideaki Matsutani, technical education instructor, Meinan Technical High School, Nagoya.

1st Children and Youth Day BrushBot tournament, October 3, 2010, State Capitol auditorium (if your child's school wants to enter a team, please have the teacher contact us for workshop information and registration); mahalo to Senator Chun-Oakland for the invitation. *additional brushbot tournament to be hosted on the Big Island

9th annual Astronaut Lacy Veach Day of Discovery, October 16, 2010, Punahou School (http://www.spacegrant.hawaii.edu/Day-of-discovery/) *keynote speaker: Kalepa Babayan, master navigator; content specialist, Imiloa Astronomy Center...and the expanded Future Flight Weird Science team (Dale, Roger...and Claire)

11th annual Astronaut Ellison Onizuka Science Day, January 22, 2011, University of Hawaii at Hilo (http://www.spacegrant.hawaii.edu/OnizukaDay/)

VEX robotics tournaments: http://www.hawaiiroc.org/ October 2, 2010: Maui County Fair (Baldwin High School gym) November 11, 2010: Iolani School gym November 20, 2010: Imiloa Astronomy Center December 3-4, 2010: Hawaii Convention Center *3 other Oahu VEX tournaments to be scheduled

If you would like volunteer at these robotics or the Onizuka or Veach Day programs, please let us know.

Thank you again for being a part of our 20th annual program...we hope the rest of the summer provides time for relaxation and for family and friends to gather.  It truly was a joy to work with you .... Art and Rene

Art and Rene Kimura Future Flight Hawaii Hawaii Space Grant Consortium http://www.spacegrant.hawaii.edu/ phone (808) 934-7261

- posted by Leslie Lang

Punahou Project Citizen: We Are In Good Hands

Richard Ha writes:

Remember that Punahou School 8th-grade student who'd heard local farmers are having a tough time and  decided to do something about it?

I received an invitation to attend her class’ final Project Citizen presentations.

I felt that I should go and represent Hawai‘i’s farmers. After all, if they made such a commitment, the least I could do was go on behalf of local farmers.

 Aloha,

I would like to invite you to attend my class' final Project Citizen presentations so you can be able to see what we've been working on for the past year. Our presentations will be on Friday, April 23, 2010 in Miyawaki Building #8-102 in Case Middles School at Punahou School from 12:30 to 1:00. Attached is a document with more details and information about the presentations. I hope you will be able to attend!

Thanks,
L-

I did attend, and told the students how proud I was of them, and that I feel Hawai‘i is in good hands with them as representatives of their generation. I told them that other farmers would be very appreciative of their efforts, too, and that I would tell as many of them as I could.

I explained that they can make a great difference just by asking produce managers at their local supermarket to carry local products. I told them that the management keep track of inquiries and that is responsive to its customers' wants. Retail stores do not want to lose customers to their competition down the road.

 Afterward, I heard again from the student L.:

I'm so happy you came to see our presentations, it was nice to meet you. Here's my description:
 
Every year Punahou School has a Sustainability Fair outside, on Middle Field, which is open to everyone, the public, parents, and students. People from different environmental organizations come and have their own booths to teach people about different environmental problems and solutions. Also, there is a local farmers market where local farmers can sell their fresh produce, and artists can sell things like recycled caprisun bags out of recycled products. Students also sell recycled art that they've made like bracelets and earrings. Students, like my class, have their own booths, like how my class did. At our booth, we had a contract where people could sign to pledge to buy local at least once a week, and then they would get a green wristband that said "Buy Local!" to remind them to always try to buy local as much as possible to support Hawaii's local farmers. We got over 450 signatures, which really helped. We got so many signatures, because so many people showed up and wanted to make a difference in the world and for our local farmers.
 
One of the highlights of our presentations was that we knew that we were making a big difference for local farmers and for us, and that we were reaching out to them. We knew that just with our presentations, we were giving local farmers hope in these tough economic times and letting them know that they are very important to Hawaii's culture, and if we loss them, then we would loose a part of Hawaii. With the presentations, we were doing good, not just for the local farmers but for us, making us a more self-sufficient state. With the presentations, we were reminding ourselves of the importance of buying local and how it can make a big difference in our economy, the state, and for local farmers.
 
I hope this helps, and thank you again for coming to our presentation and representing Hawaii's local farmers, it meant a lot to us knowing you were there.

I flew to O‘ahu just to attend the presentation, and I was so glad I did. It was great to see the students' determination to support local farmers because it is a matter of survival for all those who call Hawai‘i home. They are very aware that we are vulnerable living out here in the middle of the ocean, and it is nice to know that they know.

A lot of the time, farmers don’t know if anyone cares. From attending Project Citizens at Punahou School, I can tell you that these young people absolutely do care.

I thank them all on behalf of all Hawai‘i’s farmers. And thank you, L., for asking me to participate.

It Takes A Community

Richard Ha writes:

It's been a busy few days.

Last Wednesday evening, Don Thomas, a geologist from UH Hilo, accompanied me to a meeting of the Keaukaha Community Association where he described two drilling projects. The first was a 3,000 ft. or so pilot hole sunk by the Hilo breakwater. It was a test to see if the concept of drilling to acquire a profile of the land was feasible. The second was a much deeper hole on the National Guard side of the Hilo airport. This was a part of a National Science Foundation-funded study. It was meant to gather information on the formation of the Big Island by studying the layers of lava as the hole was drilled deeper and deeper.

The background as I understand it: In eartlier days, only the Kohala Mountain range, Hualalai and Mauna Kea protruded above the ocean. Then Mauna Loa erupted and the Hilo side of Mauna Kea was covered by Mauna Loa's lava.

Core samples showed that there was Mauna Loa lava atop soil from Mauna Kea, much like the kind of material you see on the Hilo/Hamakua coast. Then, as the drill went deeper, they found fresh water at 160 lbs. of pressure in the Mauna Kea lava, way below the surface of the ocean. This is what's called an artesian well, and is when you get water shooting out under pressure from the surface of the land. That means that this water is under pressure from water that is pushing against it.

As I understand it, drill deep enough and water will just shoot out of the ground. I'll ask Don what all this means and report back here.

I saw Luana Kawelu at the Keaukaha Community Association meeting Wednesday night. Kumu Lehua calls her one of the "Gang of Three" (with Patrick Kahawaiola‘a) -- the folks who together help to make Keaukaha Elementary School the excellent school that it is. She is also the driving force behind the Merrie Monarch Festival. She has never let marketing and dreams of bigger and better things cloud her judgment. She just focuses on the pono thing. I cannot imagine how the Merrie Monarch Festival could be done better. "Pono" is way good enough.

Thursday, I flew to Maui to visit supermarkets as part of my marketing involvement with the new organic farm at Kapalua called WeFarm@Kapalua. This organic farm is on former Maui Pineapple Company lands and consists of approximately 158 acres. David Cole, the former CEO of Maui Land and Pine, started the organic farm awhile ago. When MLP got out of pineapple, the Ulupono Initiative submitted a bid to take over the former organic farm. From the Ulupono Initiative website:

Ulupono Sustainable Agriculture Development LLC, a subsidiary of the Ulupono Initiative,
announced today that it would be assuming operations of Kapalua Farms, an organic farming and agriculture research facility located near the entry of the Kapalua Resort in West Maui.  Maui Land & Pineapple Company, Inc., owners of the 158-acre agricultural parcel, successfully reached an agreement with Ulupono earlier this month, with the transition of the property already underway.
 
“We are pleased to partner with Ulupono Sustainable Agriculture Development as they assume operations of Kapalua Farms,” said Warren H. Haruki, chairman and interim CEO of Maui Land & Pineapple Company, Inc.  “Our desire was to find an operational partner that would be able to continue organic farming operations and to maintain Kapalua Farms as a community resource, employer, and provider.  Ulupono is an exemplary organization committed to preserving our agricultural land, and we look forward to working together.”

I am especially pleased to be working with the Ulupono Initiative and WeFarm@Kapalua because I watched Jeff Alvord put this initiative together over the last several years. Jeff would call when he was in town and we would talk about the larger picture of a sustainable Hawai‘i. I knew from early on that the Omidyar Group had the best interest of Hawai‘i at heart. I'm very happy to be closely involved with this new organic farming initiative.

Later, when I made my way to the Maui airport, I ran into Stevie Whalen, the President of the Hawai‘i Ag Research Center, which is the modern-day iteration of the Hawaiian Sugar Planters Association's research arm.

Founded in 1895, the Hawaiian Sugar Planters' Association (HSPA), dedicated to improving the sugar industry in Hawaii, has become an internationally recognized research center. Its name change in 1996 to Hawaii Agriculture Research Center (HARC) reflects its expanding scope to encompass research in forestry, coffee, forage, vegetable crops, tropical fruits, and many other diversified crops in addition to sugarcane. HARC is a private, non-profit 501c5 organization.

HARC specializes in horticultural crop research including agronomy and plant nutrition, plant physiology, breeding, genetic engineering and tissue culture, and control of diseases and pests through integrated pest management. HARC also performs pesticide registration work; training in areas such as pesticide application and environmental compliance; ground water monitoring; and technical literature searches.

Stevie was on Maui to help provide research info about new biocrop possibilities that could possibly be the base feedstock that would provide the U.S. Navy the kind of second and third generation fuel that it could use to fly its jet planes and run its ships. Liquid transportation fuel is very important for us living in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. It will take a huge research effort to develop high-yielding bio feedstock. It will not just happen miraculously, out of the blue. I have the utmost confidence in Stevie and her HARC crew, as well as Andy Hashimoto and the CTAHR crew.

Stevie told me that it's becoming evident that biofuel production will need to use the added value of co-products to make it an economically viable form of energy. There is no doubt that we want to develop a biofuel that will eventually be cost-competitive with fossil fuels. I am very aware that much more work needs to be done.

Then, on the plane back to Hilo, I ended up sitting next to Arnold Hara, extension entomologist for UH Manoa. He was on Maui as part of a project to intensively inspect imported produce coming from the mainland and foreign countries. He was very concerned about the amount of invasive species insects that are being found on imported organic produce. He called imported organic produce "dirty." He meant that there are lots of hitchhikers on organic produce. It is very worrisome.

I'll call him tomorrow and ask what varieties of organic produce we should grow to replace imported organic produce. I'm very happy to be associated with WeFarm@Kapalua, where we can help to protect Hawai‘i from invasive species.

Update on Punahou Class' 'Project Citizen'

Do you remember the 8th grade class at Punahou School in Honolulu, which wrote to Richard about its class project?

From the email Richard received back in November:

My name is L.T. [name removed]. I'm a 14 year old. I'm a 8th grade Punahou School student. Wanda Adams from the Honolulu Advertiser, recommended you to me to answer some questions on a project my class is doing. The project is called project citizen, we choose a problem in our community, research the problem, and then as a class act on the problem. The problem my class chose is that many local farms are struggling because Hawaii is too dependent on imports from the mainland and around the world. Wanda Adams told me that you know a lot about this topic. I have some questions for you about this it if you won't mind answering....

Read more about that here, including Richard's answers to some of the class's questions.

Richard recently emailed again to see how they're doing. Here's their exchange.

Hi L.:

How is your class doing with project citizen? I have told a fair number of folks about what your class is doing. Reaction is overwhelmingly favorable. People find it inspiring.

Aloha,
Richard

Dear Richard,  

So far, my class has made a lot of progress. My class has come up with a public policy of trying to urge the State to not have an excise tax for Hawaii's local farmers. And our civic action (something my class is going to do) is hand out wristbands to people to remind them to buy local and, have them sign a contract to pledge that they will try to buy local as much as possible.

My class has contacted a few of Hawaii's Senate members and House of representatives members to try to get them to pass SB1179, a bill that is similar to our public policy which we want to have as a bill in the 2010 Legislative Secession. SB1179, (National Farm to School program) is a bill that relates to our class project. If passed the National Farm to School program will be taught in all of Hawaii's public schools, and will teach students about how important local farming is, it will encourage students to eat a healthy diet, and it will have the public school cafeterias provide as much local foods to the children for meals that are bought from local farmers.

If you would want to know more about this bill, here's the link. I hope this bill or our proposed public policy bill will get passed through Hawaii's Legislature this year.

Thanks,
L.

- posted by Leslie Lang

Keaukaha School - "Really Something Else"

Richard and June just attended the “Evening of Song” holiday program at Keaukaha Elementary School, and he told me that when it was over and they came out of the program, they were both amazed.

“It was the most fun thing,” he said. “We couldn’t believe it. I don’t know how often you see a principal of a school with an ‘ukulele out in the front, dancing. We came out pretty happy, both of us.

June at left, with Principal Kumu Lehua Veincent and his mother

He said another thing that really struck him was the Santa Claus. “The Santa came out boogying while carrying his boogie board in one hand,” he said. “He had the beat, and stayed with it, spinning around and punctuating the beat with his rubbah slippahs, waving to the crowd as he made his way to his Santa chair.

“How could kids be afraid of a dancing Santa Claus wearing rubbah slippahs and carrying a boogie board?" he said. "They loved him; you could see it in the tiniest ones’ faces. When he sat down and the kids came to sit on his lap, they were not afraid of him. You cannot be afraid of someone in rubbah slippers.”

During the program the school recognized Ilde Aceret, a custodian retiring after 27 years of service; Aunty Momi Wakita, for starting up the Evening of Song several years ago; and Ed and Irene Kozohara, retired teachers who volunteered for many years to give the keiki ‘ukulele lessons.

“You can just see the values at that school,” said Richard. “You can see that the community there is really tight. They are really basic, down to earth, solid values. When you see the folks being recognized…. that janitor, she's very important. If everybody there had had shiny shoes on, I don't think the janitor would have been up there being recognized.”

“Just the look at how the community interacts – it’s no wonder the school is doing so good.”

Then Kumu Lehua called up Richard and June. “June and I were totally surprised to be called up,” he said. “We recognized that it was in appreciation of the folks that fund the Adopt-A-Class project, which sends that school’s keiki on excursions.”

Counting the people that were outside the gym, Kumu Lehua estimated there were about 750 people there.

Each class sang during the program, with what Richard said was only minimal backup. “We all know there are lots of entertainers in Keaukaha, but it was just an ‘ukulele and a bass. The bass was way in the background but kept up a nice beat. It made them look and sound almost professional. They're starting at a high level, not a low level.

“When they did the introduction chant, it was three or four times more enthusiastic. Those voices were STRONG. There was no loudspeaker; they didn’t need it, the voices were strong.”

“The school, the parents, they cannot force that. It was something else.”

- posted by Leslie Lang

Salad Bars in Schools

Richard Ha writes:

I wrote here awhile back that Rep. Sam Farr was planning to introduce a bill that would help install salad bars in U.S. elementary schools. He did introduce the bill on December 3rd.

From sgvtribune.com (San Gabriel Valley, CA):

Farr bill aims to get students to eat their veggies
Posted: 10/26/2009 01:30:47 AM PDT

Rep. Sam Farr, D-Carmel, is renewing his push for salad bars in schools through legislation that would require more fruits and vegetables on campus menus.The Children's Fruit and Vegetable Act of 2009, which Farr expects to introduce in coming weeks, directs the U.S. Department of Agriculture to spend more of its school food budget on produce and provide additional money for cafeteria upgrades like salad bars.

"For the first time, parents are asking school boards what are you feeding my kid, not just what are you teaching him," said Farr, who represents most of Santa Cruz County. "These kids are too often obese, and we as a government are not leading the way and providing them healthy food."

The congressman's push for better eating follows a highly publicized federal report this month that suggests fat- and sodium-filled school meals are not consistent with government dietary guidelines. Needed, according to the findings by the Institute of Medicine, are less saturated fat and salt and more whole grains, fruits and vegetables, changes Farr believes his bill would bring.

"We're not practicing what we preach," Farr said. The new bill would move things in the right direction, he said…. (Read the rest here)

The bill Rep. Farr introduced on December 3 is called the Children’s Fruit and Vegetable Act.

More on this at The Packer:

Salad bar advocates head to Capitol Hill

Published on 12/04/2009 03:36pm By Tom Karst

…Slusser was one of several advocates of salad bars on Dec. 3-4 in Washington, D.C., on behalf of the United Fresh Produce Association, to brief lawmakers and staffers on Capitol Hill.

Slusser asked Congress to provide increased funding so schools can serve more fruits and vegetables and purchase salad bar equipment and other needed cafeteria items so more schools can have salad bars.

The group also scheduled visits with food and nutrition officials at the U.S. Department of Agriculture…. (Read the rest here)

It would be great if local produce was available in Hawai‘i’s schools. And, especially, if it was in salad bars.