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Honolulu’s New Urban Garden Project Helps People Living in Vulnerable Communities Grow Their Own Food

The raised beds at Manoa Gardens Elderly Housing serve about 90 kupuna. Photo: Courtesy of Honolulu Department of Community Services

“It’s not only dealing with food security, but it’s getting older people like us outside,”

By Catherine Toth Fox
Honolulu Magazine
April 5, 2021

Excerpt:

Oh, but it is. Duff, a 77-year-old resident of Manoa Gardens Elderly Housing, revels in her raised-bed garden outside her apartment, flourishing with heads of butter lettuce, kale, eggplant, mint, parsley, chives, carrots and turnips.

“I love it,” she says. “I’m a gardener, I love gardening and I love saving the world one garden at a time. That’s my motto.”

That’s also the sentiment behind the Honolulu Department of Community Services project. In December 2020, the department created more than 160 garden beds and planted 20 fruit trees at seven city-owned special-needs housing locations. Funded by the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act and inspired by the city’s popular community gardens program, the project helps to provide fresh, sustainable produce for those affected most by the pandemic, from k?puna to domestic violence survivors to low-income families.

“This pandemic has truly shone a light on the need for food security among our vulnerable communities,” says Pamela Witty-Oakland, director of the Department of Community Services. “Each of these project locations is a place that has offered safety and stability to ‘ohana through housing. Now we get to work together to plant literal seeds for their future that will help to feed nearly 1,100 residents not just for weeks or months, but for years to come.” The city is looking for funding to expand the program long-term. Other counties are also interested in starting similar gardens.

Read the complete article here.