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Lahainaluna farming program for boarders revives orchard

Project, which allows students to grow crops and sell products, gets help from Mahi Pono

By Melissa Tanji 5 min read

Students, Lahainaluna alumni and others planted mango and avocado trees in Lahainaluna High School's revived orchard last week, signaling a restart of its boarders' farming program which dissipated over the years.

Boarding program alumni Craig Murakami and Eddie Espiritu, who both graduated in 1971, said that after their class, the farming program slowly dwindled due to stringent requirements from agencies such as the state Department of Health and Department of Education.

Long gone are the chickens, cows, fruits and vegetables that the two men and the classes before them learned to care for, even pasteurizing their own milk. The livestock and crops fed the boarders, and the goods were sold to help with the program funding.

In an effort to recapture some of the old program and give current students a taste of hands-on learning and farming, the boarding program's alumni association has long sought to restart what they can.

In August the alumni began to clear the old 1-acre orchard on campus with the help of the boarders and community volunteers. Last week the first 12 of 32 trees were planted. Today they hope to plant more. There will also be 'ulu and banana trees as well.

"I want to see it succeed. This is the first step in bringing some of this stuff back," Espiritu said of the program on Monday afternoon. "Hopefully there's not going to be an interruption in any of the farm work or activities for boarders again for the next 180 years."

Founded in 1836, the program is 186 years old.

"This is something that the boarders association has been talking about for some time," Murakami said. "We never been able to get to it because we kept on getting rotating administrators. This year finally it looks like the administrators feel comfortable enough to get started working on it with us. They had been working with us since July to get this thing going."

There are currently 49 students in the program who will periodically make their way to the orchard in between other activities, Murakami said.

"We want them to take ownership," Murakami said of the boarders. "They got to feel like it's theirs, it's not for us. We are doing this for them, so we want them to take ownership."

Also working with the alumni and boarders is Mahi Pono, which Murakami described as "big supporters." The company has donated irrigation supplies, fertilizer, compost, mulch, the trees and pallets to be used as barricades to keep out deer and goats. They also helped with field preparation.

Mahi Pono's Director of Community Relations Tiare Lawrence said she will be out at Lahainaluna to lend a hand and teach. Work done in the orchard will be rolled into the school curriculum. Currently the orchard is used by the boarders but will also include day students as well in the near future, she said.

"We are partnering with different schools throughout Maui in helping to revamp their agriculture programs. More so to help assist with career development because we are going to need kids that are passionate in agriculture to come work us eventually," Lawrence said. "Also we feel it's our kuleana to help the different campuses achieve its food security and food sustainability on campus."

Lawrence is a 2000 graduate of Lahainaluna High School and was also a former president of its Future Farmers of America Club. There are also several other LHS alumni at Mahi Pono, she said.

She remembers flowers and vegetables, including cucumbers and eggplant, being sold from their gardens when she was at the school.

"I think for people like myself who are currently working in agriculture, I probably wouldn't be in this position had it not been taking all the ag courses at Lahainaluna," she said.

Murakami said that they also plan on starting a vegetable garden this school year so the students can eat what they grow, as the fruit trees that they recently planted will take time to mature.

"We are hoping they are going to eat what they produce and hopefully have some to sell," Murakami said.

There are terraces above the orchard where the students can plant vegetables and also flowers, he said.

Murakami added that some challenges the farming program faces now is that the boarding students do not stay at the school on weekends due to short-staffing. In the past Murakami and others did stay over on weekends, doing their own laundry and tending to the farm. This prepared students as they went off to college.

Murakami and Espiritu are two of around four volunteers who come out to help with the orchard. The two men are out there several times a week. They also would like more alumni to come out.

"We want everybody to come home to Lahainaluna," Murakami said.

Espiritu said they also want the community to know that the boarding program does have activities and to come out if "you want to come join us."

"Everybody has memories, those that were here that remember the orchard, get plenty memories for lot of the guys," Espiritu added.

So far the program has had sponsorships to get it started. But it will need help with its vegetable garden and other supplies. Murakami is seeking donations. He can be reached at cmurakami@live.com or call (808) 870-5217.

* Melissa Tanji can be reached at mtanji@mauinews.com.

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