Our IHSUF, IHS Urban Farm partnership held a volunteer workday on Friday, May 7. The volunteers did an amazing job uprooting weeds, shrubs, deeply rooted stumps, to clear the ground for a sheet mulch layering process of chicken manure, cardboard, compost and mulch. Military volunteers  from the Navy seals, LEAP instructors, IHS staff and keiki, along with LEAF Hawaii volunteers all came together under the hot sun to prepare the space for planting an edible garden at the shelter. The day long worday took about 5 hours, but with so many volunteers the task was a real pleasure for everyone who participated. All the volunteers are anxious fo the next workday which will be a planting day to help fulfill the IHSUF mission, ” planting seeds of self-sufficiency”  and “helpiing solve hunger one garden, one farm at a time”, with the help of the community.

 Garden now ready for planting! 

  LEAF had a table on behalf of IHSUF, the IHS Urban farm project on Earth day, April 22, organized by the Weekly, called the Green Market. Executive Director, David Santistevan met with many interested folks who took seed packets to start their own home garden, and many signed up for IHSUF workdays. Congressman Ed Case dropped by and was applauding the project which addresses hunger alleviation in the practical way that the IHSUF is tackling it, ’solving hunger, one garden, one farm at a time”.  Our city could very easily solve hunger when leadership networks with innovative projects like this. The sky is the limit, well maybe the  rooftop at least! The Weekly did a great job of bringing together a nice representation from the community of  eco-friendly  businesses making a big difference in protecting our natural resources.