We Are All in the Same Canoe: One Island Sustainable Living Center Promotes Sustainability on Hawai‘i Island

By Barbara Fahs

With a modest budget and big vision, the One Island Sustainable Living Center in Hōnaunau is accomplishing some amazing feats toward farming education and sustainability.

The terms ‘sustainable’ and ‘sustainability’ are bandied about a lot today. To many people, they mean growing one’s own food at home, and perhaps installing solar energy or other renewable power. To One Island’s Executive Director Marcy Montgomery, “Sustainability is about much more than food and energy: it’s a mindset that affects lifestyle, including arts and culture, health and wellness.” She added, “Sustainability cornerstones also include natural resource conservation and a green economy. These are all interrelated components of sustainable living.”

Mission and History

One Island’s mission as a nonprofit organization is to facilitate new education and rural development opportunities that will help to find valuable solutions in Hawai‘i and beyond.

Serving Hawai‘i since 2002, the Heritage Ranch, Inc. organization established One Island Sustainable Living Center in 2006. With the help of the nonprofit’s team and over 150 volunteers, including local residents and guests from around the world, the once impenetrable Christmas berry thicket on One Island’s 10 acre parcel has been transformed into a lush, beautiful farm and garden where butterfly habitat, local birds, and prevailing Kona breezes combine to create a healing and regenerative environment. Students from local charter schools and at-risk programs regularly pitch in to create and maintain the educational demonstration gardens.

In addition to the help of volunteers and students, One Island has successfully applied for and received grants that have enabled them to create a community-based facility that includes:

• a 2,500 square foot open air barn overlooking Kealakekua Bay that serves as an office, agriculture processing, and meeting facility;
• a 4,500 square foot greenhouse for vegetables and herbs;
• the farm and garden, including a 32,000 gallon water catchment system.

Raven Bolas, a community facilitator and instructor at One Island describes the farm and garden as, “a living, learning laboratory where learners of all ages participate in workshops, attend festivals, go to youth camps, enjoy local food events, and learn about sustainability as an integrated lifestyle.”

In 2006, One Island received a start-up grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), which allowed them to create an educational botanical garden and farm as a rural economic development project. After clearing the land, mostly barren black rock scattered with old mango groves, breadfruit (‘ulu), and kukui trees remained. “We cleared the land through ‘gentle’ bulldozing that left the mature trees intact and have implemented practices like sheet mulch and composting to create soil. Our gardens all follow the natural contours of the land because we did not rip the rock to create an artificial landscape.”

The next One Island project, the West Hawai‘i Sustainable Energy Project, was funded by the USDA Rural Utility Service and has brought renewable solar energy, solar hot water, solar irrigation pumps, solar ovens, and solar refrigerators to Kona and Ka‘ū. “We have been able to serve over 150 families, farms, and nonprofits through this grant,” Montgomery said. “Bringing solar refrigeration to remote Hawaiian fishing village homes was one of the most rewarding experiences our team has had.”

In May 2010, One Island opened to the public. Visitors may take a tour, volunteer their time, attend a workshop or special event, or host a personal event for a small group. The facility has a meeting space equipped with a food preparation area as well as indoor and outdoor dining options. There is an outdoor stage, with walking trails, lawn space, and gardens which boasts of mature bananas, mangoes, pineapples, papayas, coconuts, cacao, oranges, limes, grapefruit, lychees, sapotes, breadfruit, Surinam cherries, mangosteens, noni, starfruit, tree tomatoes, and liliko‘i, not to mention medicinals and ornamentals. The food-producing trees provide meals for the residents, students, guests, and volunteers. They also serve to educate members of the South Kona community about the importance and ease of growing their own food as a step towards self-sufficiency.

Current and Upcoming Projects

One Island is actively involved in spearheading several sustainable rural development projects, in addition to the West Hawai‘i Sustainable Energy Project:

Same Canoe Community Gardens

With funding through the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute for Food and Agriculture, One Island is assisting in funding the growth of 15 community gardens at public schools, other nonprofit organizations, and senior centers as People’s Gardens.

Michelle Obama’s White House food garden was the inspiration for the People’s Garden grant program. Through it, One Island will soon be awarding 120 mini grants to individual families intended to assist in creating food sources for local communities, wildlife habitat restoration and reforestation. To qualify for a mini grant, applicants must attend a One Island workshop and help out at a local community garden in spring 2013.

“The concept of this is like a pebble in a pond,” Montgomery explained. “That is, the efforts of a few will create ripples out into their communities that will generate more local food production and conservation efforts.”

No Fruit Left Behind Gleaning Project

Reclaiming the local food system by increasing the island’s food security is an important goal that One Island continually strives for. In support of this, One Island sponsors the No Fruit Left Behind community harvest (NFLB), which has gathered over 3,600 pounds of fresh food since its inception in August 2012. NFLB team leader Raven Bolas said, “Our mission is to reclaim the local food system—one tree at a time. It’s a zero-waste campaign to get more locally grown food into the diets of local residents and to help decrease our dependence on imported foods.”

“It’s great to see a local organization walking their talk and getting out there to harvest food that would otherwise go to waste. The farmers get help caring for their orchards, the food banks get fresh food, and the gleaners also get a share of the harvest. It is a win-win-win,” explained Bolas.

Everyone is welcome to donate any over abundance of produce they may have or to help by picking or cleaning the collected produce. It is then sold at One Island’s farmers’ market booth at the South Kona Green Market on Sundays. The project also donates food to a food bank every week. To put your name on the announcement list for each week’s gleaning gatherings, e-mail One Island at hawaii@oneisland.org. This project also keeps interested people informed through their Facebook page, “No Fruit Left Behind.”

Volunteer Wednesdays

Twice each month on Wednesday, from 8:30 am–noon, One Island hosts volunteers who help to develop their educational displays and garden exhibit projects as well as helping out at local community gardens. The community is invited to take a tour and help with the farm and garden projects, which can include superfoods, fruit orchards, canoe, native, spice, vegetable, and medicinal plant gardens. Lunch is provided and volunteers of all ages and abilities are welcome. E-mail hawaii@oneisland.org to reserve your space.

Green Business Incubator

Under the leadership of volunteer Stephen Shrader, this project has successfully helped to increase the number of jobs in the green business sector on Hawai‘i Island. Through it, residents can receive training and support necessary for developing or expanding green businesses. Examples include business ventures such as agriculture, agriculture tourism, ecological tourism, renewable energy, healthy food and body care products, and wellness services of all kinds.

YES!! Youth Empowerment for Sustainability Camps

The Camp is One Island’s learning program for elementary, middle, and high school students. Students spend six days and one overnight at the camp immersed in many aspects of sustainable living. They learn about the relationships between local food, renewable energy, arts and culture, wildlife and resource conservation. The next Youth Camps will be held in spring and early summer, 2013. Spring break activities are also planned. To learn more, contact One Island at hawaii@oneisland.org.

Upcoming: Flavor of Hawai‘i Farms Farmer’s Co-op

This project will have many levels of involvement, with the goal of connecting farmers with consumers by promoting farmers markets, educational festivals, food festivals, and the No Fruit Left Behind project. It will increase farmers’ visibility and encourage the public to buy and support locally grown food.

Ongoing Programs

Throughout the year, One Island holds sustainable living workshops, local foods festivals, and educational tours. Examples of topics being offered in 2013 include How to Grow it, How to Preserve it, Renewable Energy, Health and Wellness, Mauka-to-Makai Watershed, and Greening Your Business.

Current News

One Island has been awarded two fulltime annual VISTA volunteers for a period of three years. One of them will serve as a volunteer development leader and the other will function as a partner development leader. “This will enable us to grow and mature as an organization,” Montgomery noted.

Inviting new rowers to the sustainability canoe, One Island encourages us all to “grab a paddle and be part of the sustainability solution.” ❖

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For more info: OneIsland.org

Contact writer Barbara Fahs: Hiiakas.com