Brown Bag Speaker Series

The first installment in our series features Kevin Chang of Kua ʻĀina Ulu ʻAuamo (KUA) & Albie Miles of Transforming Hawaiʻi's Food System Together (THFST).

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KUA is a community-driven initiative focused on safeguarding and revitalizing Hawaiʻi's natural environment. By promoting community-based management of natural resources, KUA collaborates with both government agencies and local communities to restore the traditional role of Hawaiʻi’s people as stewards of their lands and waters.

Transforming Hawaiʻi’s Food System Together is a collaborative and multi-sectoral food system change initiative that seeks to convene key stakeholders, conduct applied research, articulate policy and planning recommendations and build statewide capacity to achieve a more economically robust, sustainable, equitable and resilient food system for Hawaiʻi.

The second installment in our series features Aaron Ellis of Feed the Hunger Fund, Amanda Shaw of the Oʻahu Agriculture and Conservation Association (OACA), and Keoni Lee of Hawaiʻi Investment Ready.

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Feed the Hunger Fund works hand-in-hand with food entrepreneurs, cooks, and chefs to provide critical loan capital to start, grow and sustain their businesses.

Oʻahu Agriculture and Conservation Association's mission is to mobilize resources for Hawaiʻi’s producers and agricultural ecosystem, contributing to collective efforts to address agriculture’s economic, social and environmental challenges.

Hawaiʻi Investment Ready supports the people and organizations addressing Hawaiʻi’s social and environmental opportunities by accelerating social enterprise impact and access to investment.

The third installment in our series features Kaipo Kekona of Hawaiʻi Farmer's Union United (HFUU) & Heather McMillen of Kaulunani Urban & Community Forestry Program.

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Hawaiʻi Farmer's Union United works to advocate for agricultural communities for the people of Hawaiʻi Nei, asserting that a multitude of smallholder, diversified family farms that implement regenerative techniques in growing and raising food will create a productive agricultural system to better feed Hawai‘i’s people.

Kaulunani focuses on improving the health and viability of trees in Hawaiʻi's communities through the implementation of educational programs; supporting Tree City USA communities across the state; providing technical training; administering financial support in the form of cost-share grants; supporting Arbor Day Hawaiʻi; and maintaining public/private partnerships.

Our fourth installment features Kelsey Amos of Hawaiʻi Food+ Policy, Daniela Spoto of Hawaiʻi Appleseed Center for Law & Economic Justice, and Anne Frederick of Hawaiʻi Alliance for Progressive Action (HAPA)

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Hawaiʻi Food+ Policy is an internship program that gives Hawaiʻi college students and young farmers experience in civic engagement, a professional work environment, and problem solving through the lens of food systems advocacy.

Hawaiʻi Appleseed is committed to a more socially and economically just Hawaiʻi, changing systems to address income inequality, educating policymakers and the public, engaging in collaborative problem solving and coalition building, and advocating for policy and systems change.

HAPA is committed to championing social, economic, and environmental justice throughout Hawaiʻi, highlighting that the challenges plaguing these systems are not isolated from broader social, economic, and environmental concerns.

Our fifth installment features Dr. Katherine Pirkle of Pirkle Epidemiology and Evaluation Consulting, Amy Miller of the Hawaiʻi Foodbank, Jason Shon, Food Security & Sustainability Manager at the City & County of Honolulu's Resilience Office, and Alex Narrajos-Corby, Sustainable Agriculture & Food Systems Manager at the City & County of Honolulu's Resilience Office.

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Pirkle Epidemiology and Evaluation Consulting facilitated the most recent study conducted, The State of Food Insecurity in Hawaiʻi, 2023.

Hawai‘i Foodbank, Hawai‘i’s largest hunger relief organization, works with a network of more than 225 agency partners on O‘ahu and Kaua‘i, along with affiliate food banks on Maui and Hawai‘i Island, to provide food assistance to the State of Hawai‘i.

The Resilience Offfice at the City & County of Honolulu is tasked with tracking climate change science and potential impacts on City facilities, coordinating actions and policies of departments within the City to increase community preparedness, developing resilient infrastructure in response to the effects from climate change, and integrating sustainable and environmental values into City plans, programs, and policies.

Our sixth installment features Lydi Bernal, Junior Extension Agent - Oʻahu Farm to School Coordinator at UH Mānoa, CTAHR, Lara Ediger, Associate Director, GoFarm, and Jeannette Soon-Ludes, Executive Director at Māla ʻAi, Hawaiʻi Island School Garden Network.

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The Oʻahu Farm to School Coordinator Junior Extension agent works to improve nutrition, food acces, and total well-being by addressing community-level needs for implementing farm to school activities, including education, school gardens/farms, and local school food.

GoFarm Hawaiʻi's mission is to enhance Hawaiʻi’s food security and economy by increasing the number of sustainable, local agricultural producers. They do this by offering those with an interest in agriculture a combination of knowledge, experience, and support to reach their full potential.

Māla ʻAi, Hawaiʻi Island School Garden Network (HISGN) provides a network of support to teachers, educators, administrators, and more, offering professional development, advocacy, mentorship and technical assistance, to expand the use of ʻāina (land) based initiatives in schools across the state.

Our seventh installment features some of the various organizations working together as "The Hawaiʻi Climate-Smart Partnership," consisting of Kyle Jackson (Hawaiʻi ʻUlu Cooperative), Kaliko High and Miguel Castrence (Oʻahu Resource Conservation and Development Council), Angel Melone (Hawaiʻi Cattlemen's Council), Irene Sprecher (Forest Solutions), Mitchell Kenji Loo (Hawaiʻi Farmer's Union United) and Lala Nuss (Conscious Concepts).

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The Hawaiʻi Climate-Smart Partnership works to accelerate the implementation of climate-smart practices centered on Hawaiʻi-based producers and ancestral practitioners who are supported by advocacy, incentives, technical assistance, and market development.

The Hawaiʻi ʻUlu Cooperative (HUC) is a farmer-owned business working to revitalize ‘ulu (breadfruit) as a viable crop and dietary staple by empowering farmers as change-makers in Hawaiʻi’s food system.

Oʻahu Resource Conservation and Development Council (Oʻahu RC&D) is an independent, 501(c)(3) non-profit entity that has been serving Hawaiʻi’s rural communities, farms, and ranches since 1997 to improve stewardship of natural resources.

The Hawaiʻi Cattlemen's Council, Inc. (HCC) is the Statewide umbrella organization comprised of the four county level Cattlemen’s Associations, with 150+ member ranchers representing over 60,000 head of beef cows; more than 75% of all the beef cows in the State.

Forest Solutions Inc. provides cutting edge and innovative land management and forestry expertise across a broad spectrum of tropical forest management needs to large and small landowners, non-profit organizations, public and private forest managers, and government agencies.

Hawaiʻi Farmers Union United (HFUU) works to advocate for agricultural communities for the people of Hawaiʻi Nei, asserting that a multitude of smallholder, diversified family farms that implement regenerative techniques in growing and raising food will create a productive agricultural system to better feed Hawai‘i’s people.

Conscious Concepts provides consulting and project management for private, non-profit, philanthropic, and public sector organizations, partnering with movers and shakers seeking to disrupt systemic inequity, improve community well-being, and improve climate resiliency.

Our eigth installment features Amanda Shaw, Ph.D. (Statewide Food Systems Coordinator, Hawaiʻi Department of Agriculture (HDOA)) and Amy Perruso, Ph.D. (Hawaiʻi State House Representative, District 46).

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The Hawai‘i Department of Agriculture’s (HDOA) 268 employees statewide work to support, enhance, promote, and protect Hawai‘i’s agriculture and aquaculture industries. The Statewide Food Systems Coordinator focuses on increasing federal funding, institutional purchasing and addressing key infrastructural barriers to local food production and access.

Representative Amy Perruso, veteran DOE social studies teacher, was the first woman elected to represent Hawai'i State House District 46 in 2018. While her education took her around the world, from California to Shanghai to Finland and finally UH Mānoa, where she completed her doctorate in political science, she began her teaching career at Leilehua High School and taught APUSH, APGOV and a new course, Pre-AP Participation in Democracy and Modern History of Hawai'i as a National Board Certified teacher in DOE schools for almost twenty years.