At a time when a growing number of Oʻahu families don’t know where their next meal is coming from, the University of Hawaiʻi Urban Garden Center (UGC) is stepping up to help.
Volunteers and students recently harvested more than 500 pounds of cabbage from the center, donating the fresh produce to The Pantry to help families struggling with the state’s high cost of living.
The cultivation and harvest were led by Jensen Uyeda, extension agent at the UH Mānoa College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resilience (CTAHR), with help from volunteers with The Pantry and UGC, students at Leeward Community College, and Hele Imua volunteers.
A leafy green experience
Many volunteers had never picked cabbage before and learned how to clean the leafy green vegetable with a harvest knife. “It was rewarding to see folks getting that type of experience, which you probably wouldn’t get anywhere else without working on a farm,” Uyeda said.
With the cabbage harvest now complete, Uyeda plans to rotate crops of kalo, Komahana grape tomato and Hiroyama Kai choy in the same fields at UGC. This will keep supplying fresh food to local food organizations and allow volunteers to experience the satisfaction and knowledge of a harvest.
This donation follows another community initiative in July, when UGC gave away hundreds of green onion plants to families, encouraging them to grow their own food at home.
Since 2019, UGC has donated more than 30 tons of fresh produce—including fruits, vegetables and herbs—to The Pantry, the Hawaiʻi Foodbank and Aloha Harvest to help feed local families.
