UH Hilo Student Association launches Farm2U program, giving away free food boxes to students
The project is headed by UHHSA Senator-at-Large Ian Keola Scarth, who is working with Da Box, a subsidiary of The Food Basket, Hawaiʻi Island’s Food Bank, to distribute free food boxes to students.
By Nāpua Iolana Bicoy/UH Hilo Stories.
The University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo Student Association launched a program last month to provide free boxes of food to students in need.
The project is headed by UHHSA Senator-at-Large Ian Keola Scarth, who hails from Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, and is majoring in biology here at UH Hilo. Previously, he received a bachelor of arts in philosophy from Pacific University, Oregon.
Scarth has a background in gardening and farming using various organic methods. “My field of passion is sustainability through agriculture and ecology restoration,” he says.
A couple of years ago he was a volunteer on organic family farms in Chiang Mai, Thailand, where he maintained garden beds, tended seedlings, harvested vegetables and fruits, diagnosed pest issues, and scheduled the tasks of co-workers.
He says he heard from students at UH Hilo who said they need more fruits and vegetables in their diet. Realizing his job as a senator is to meet student needs, he looked around at different ways to do that.
“I thought it would be good to support local agriculture while getting fruits and vegetables to the students,” he says. He named the project Farm2U.
He reached out to Da Box, a subsidiary of The Food Basket, Hawaiʻi Island’s Food Bank, located in Hilo. They already supply local people with food boxes via a Community Sponsored Agriculture program.
“They work with dozens of local farmers supply, fruits and vegetables and herbs and all the good things, even some pre-made foods,” says Scarth. “For the students, they did a lot of the work and they even delivered the stuff for us.”
“Very grateful for all the things that Da Box is doing for us,” he says. He adds that Sweet Cane Café in Hilo is also contributing pre-processed foods.
Scarth has held two Farm2U events on campus to distribute the free food boxes to students, one on April 6 and one on April 23. All the food was given away.
“I think it’s really important that students know that the school cares about what their needs are and can work hard to get their needs met,” says Scarth. “I think the most important thing for me is to let students know that they, their voices, do really count and their needs can be met, if they voice them.”
Looking to the future, Scarth would like to see Farm2U “combine forces” with Hale Lako, UH Hilo’s Student Supply Store. Hale Lako gives away food from the school farm. “I think would be good next semester in the fall.”
Scarth also has experience working in a deli in Idaho where he made soups, coffees, salads, and on-demand food on the grill. He has noticed that some students picking up the free food boxes here don’t know how to cook some of the produce being given away such as the cassava or the kalo.
“Some students don’t know how to cook it, or if they do know how to cook it, they don’t know how to make it tasty,” says Scarth. “So Da Box [and I] are willing and interested in teaching cooking courses.”
“I think maybe I need to stir the pot a little bit and see how people would react to it by giving them a taste of what it’s like to have some really good cooked food,” he says.
Story by Nāpua Iolana Bicoy, a Hawaiian studies major at UH Hilo. Susan Enright, editor of UH Hilo Stories, contributed.
