A fruitful collaboration between the University of Â鶹´«Ã½ at ²Ñ¨¡²Ô´Ç²¹ (CTAHR) and the County of Maui is empowering people on Molokaʻi to grow their own food, lower grocery bills and build community resilience.
The Seed to Harvest program, led by CTAHR¡¯s team of extension agents on Molokaʻi, finished its third cohort in December, with each group growing between 300 and 400 pounds of fresh fruits, vegetables and herbs. Funded by a grant from the County of Maui¡¯s Department of Agriculture, the program addresses food inequity and the high cost of imported goods by teaching residents how to cultivate sustainable home gardens.
Extension agents Kyle Franks and Jennifer Hawkins designed Seed to Harvest with an emphasis on using on-island resources to reduce reliance on expensive imports. The program creates a complete cycle of education, teaching people the skills to propagate seeds, manage pests and harvest their crops.
“There¡¯s been several generations not farming, not gardening, and so we wanted to help bring that back into the community,” said Franks. “The pandemic highlighted the level of food inequity across the island.”
For Kanoelani Dudoit, a lifelong Molokaʻi resident, the experience has been transformative. “It opened more avenues for each person to apply what they learned from the workshop right at home,” said Dudoit. She noted that the program helped her identify local stores, local prices, local items, allowing her family to “cut costs or reuse what we have here. That¡¯s a major benefit for our community.”
Harvest to market
In early 2026, the team will launch Harvest to Market, a new program designed to teach home gardeners the business side of agriculture. The upcoming curriculum will cover marketing and branding, turning raw produce into jams, jellies, or freeze-dried goods that can be sold at farmer¡¯s markets, and following state rules for selling produce and processed foods.
“Our growers are doing a great job, but now they have excess,” said Hawkins. “So the next step is helping them get their produce to market.”