(Greg Harding) The program here at Waimea High School is to teach kids about agriculture, about the land, about taking care of the land.

Mālama ʻĀina.

Aloha ʻĀina and watching what the land can do for us when we take care of it.

And honestly, really, to - is to get healthy natural food back into our community and getting Hawaiʻi not shipping in 80 percent of its produce when we can just grow it here (Mahina Anguay) When Greg first approached me about doing this garden, he was really clear.

He wanted it to be a farm that made food.

And both of us have seen over time the number of families who are in need.

And so he wanted to address that through this program.

So he told me, “I’m not going to grow flowers, I’m not going to grow pretty things.” He goes, “I'm going to grow food.” (Karen Kilar) When I was younger, I never really knew where I would fit in, you know?

And until came to high school and I was introduced to agriculture class.

And this is where I found out, like, who I really am.

Being able to share with the community and inform them about sustainability at Waimea High School - it gives me a sense of satisfaction because knowing that what I do, and what I learn, can be shared with others, it's really what touches my heart.

(Blayke Torres) The reason why the chicken coop is one of my favorite parts about our farm is because it's a self-sustaining ecosystem in itself.

Because inside here we have papaya trees, avocado trees, lychee trees, eggplant and gondule beans.

So honestly, we really don't need to feed the chickens, but we do feed them base feeds, but only once a day in the mornings, because after that they just eat whatever falls from the trees inside here.

And we have 20 coops that all chickens can lay in, and usually, they'll be filled in the mornings.

One thing, too, about the chickens is, all all the vegetables that we grow here in the garden, this is like our trash pile for it.

So if they don't meet the standards of our vegetables to sell, we will feed them to our chickens.

This almost is the center of our farm.

I think to us it's like almost the heart of our farm because not only because it's the center, but because we walk past it every day.

Up on top the coops, they’ll poop on the coops.

And when the poop tends to build up, we'll usually go in and rake it off, and then we'll mix it in with our soil and then we'll put it into our beds.

So it's also one of the main reasons to our main fertilizer comes from these chickens.

(Leiana Apo) My first year as a freshman, I was like, not so into it, but, you know, as the years go by, I really came to enjoy and love it, being outside, being able to bring home to my family.

They were always happy when we got to bring home our own freshly organically grown produce.

And you know, how people say like when you cook food with love, it tastes so much better when you grow food with love and you have a good heart when you're growing it, it tastes so much better.

These coconut trees where I started from the ground up four years ago, from coconuts .

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(Greg Harding) How many banana, how many bananas trees did you start with, banana plants?

Six.

(Leiana Apo) Different varieties .

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(Greg Harding) And no, we had only six plants and now we have over 400 and we have tons and tons of bananas.

Kids are eating bananas all day long.

(Leiana Apo) All day long.

Everybody stops by to class to pick up bananas, take a snack (Blayke Torres) We are here in Waimea High School’s Orchard, also known as our citrus farm.

Our five main citruses are lemons, limes, dragon fruit, breadfruit and tangelos.

But one thing we're also trying to do here, in our citrus farm, is a thing we like to call graphing which is when we take two different trees and we put them together.

(Greg Harding) There's a few ways to propagate plants or trees in particular.

You can either graft them onto a rootstock or you can do what we call air layering.

And what you do is you take about a two-inch piece of the cambium layer and you cut that out.

So we wrap around sphagnum moss in a baggie, put it up over that, tie it all up, and then we put this to keep in the moisture and you can tell it's working because this is all viable still.

It's still alive.

And we did this two weeks ago.

So in about another week we should be able to see if had if it has roots.

And if it does, we cut it right here, put it the ground.

And Bob is your Uncle.

(Leiana Apo) Air layering.

Done.

(Blayke Torres) You have to put a lot of love and effort into because it's not like it's not a normal tree where you can just put it into the ground and it will grow.

You have to, you're taking care of a certain part of it.

And when that tree fully grows, it's really tasty because it's like two fruits mixed into one on one tree.

To me, it's like it's a really like heart-warming thing because it's like something I get to bring home to my mom guys and tell them like, oh yeah, this is what I'm learning to do in school.

And especially when I bring them like some fruits that we grafted, I can look at my mom and I can tell her, “Here's a lime from a lemon tree”, and my mom will look at me, “What is that?” “Well, I just learned it in school.” (Taylor Ryan) We’re at the aquaponics garden, and this is where we we grow our vegetables using the nutrients from our fish tanks in the water.

They poop, and it's piped out to our vegetables and it runs through and they soak up the nutrients, and then it flows right back in just the continuous circle.

Fish poop actually has lots of nitrogen and minerals that are really good for the plants to grow.

But actually, they harm the fish when the levels get too high.

So when the water goes out through the plants, plants soak in all the nutrients.

And when the water comes back it's actually clean and good for the fish.

So we can just leave this here.

As long as we feed the fish, it all takes care of itself.

It's nice to come in here every day see them just cruising.

We just try and take care of the fish.

Stay away, don't disturb them because happy fish, happy farm over here.

We have a school that's looking for our future, you know, trying to help create a self-sustaining younger generation, trying to, you know, look for the future ways to improve everything and teaches us skills that, you know, you wouldn't learn in a normal classroom.

Doing this has taught me, you know, what I like, what I don't really like too much.

And it's just shown me more of a clear path.

I want to be in the agriculture business - I think so.

Natural science engineering is where I'm headed (Mahina Anguay) Not everybody learns well with books.

Not everybody learns well in the classroom.

There are some kids whose talents just lie in doing things with their hands and making things grow and seeing seeing it here and transforming it somewhere over here to something that's completely different.

And I think for the department, it's super important for us to find ways to connect every kid with a pathway - some - a pathway that they can identify with, that they that they can see themselves lining up to, and that they will, it'll keep them in school.

It'll - it make school, you know, important.

Leiana Apo (Leiana Apo) Starting my freshman year, I wasn't so into farming.

I wasn't so into being outdoors and being hands on with the dirt and getting all dirty and stuff.

But as the years gone by, I got really into it.

I’ve grown to love it.

Four years ago, I never would have ever thought that I would want to pursue my career in agriculture and sustainability.

Being able to be there for my land and help perpetuate whatever we had going.

I want to be able to become an impact to our future generations.

The keiki, our keiki that will come, that's really the drive that's been keeping me going because I don't want to be a banker.

I don't want to be in the office or anything.

This is our element of being outside is being outside is just amazing.

(Greg Harding) If you wanted to get this into other schools and to thrive like this, you got to get a principal that has a vision for getting Hawai’i sustainable in food production like Mahina because she gives you support, you know, and gives you extra money if you need it because it's expensive, starting a farm, all the irrigation.

But now that the infrastructure is put in place and everything's just growing and it's a biodiverse thing and it's beautiful and so it shows you you take care of something such a beautiful gift of land.

And if you got if you got wai - wai wai - you're rich.

We got that.

So it'll grow.

Mile 23 produce is a program that we've developed over the years.

We go out on Mondays, we see what's available because I've got over 67 things growing out there and not everything comes at the same time.

We send out the email to the teachers, the teachers look at what we have to offer and the prices, you know, it has the prices, everything and the prices are half of what you're gonna find in the store.

And the vegetables are just incredible.

They're fresh, they're just crisp.

They last for weeks in your refrigerator because they haven't had been on a boat getting here, and we get their orders all together, and by Friday we deliver it to them.

We bill them at the end of the month, and then and that's student run too.

So it’s teaching marketing is teaching accounting and is teaching food safety, also quality control.

(Mahina Anguay) They're learning the entrepreneurial side but all the extras, they give it away, you know, to families.

And, and I think those are those are lessons that are invaluable for us, not only as a school, but as a community.

I can have students who finish my school with this understanding that, you know, we we have a commitment to our community to serve our community because we've been blessed.

We've been given this amazing teacher who's created this program and that that’s a blessing for us as a community.

Like he’s, we're raising a whole other generation of kids who understand the idea, that of community, and that we we are responsible.

If we have we share, we give.

(Greg Harding) So we have a few Hawaiian proverbs that we live by.

And a couple of them are Ma Ka Hana Ka Ike which is learn by doing.

Another proverb would be Laulima.

Many hands.

Many hands make light labor and Aloha ʻĀina.

Look after the land.

And this is only seven years and you see the size of my ulu trees.

You see the the growth and the birth.

Just because we're taking care of it, we're putting back into the soil, we're putting back into nature what we take out of it.

Keeping that circle going is super important.

It's super important, it's cheaper and it's economical.

And you can just do it.

Anybody can do it.

(Karen Kilar) To me, it speaks ma uka to ma kai and sustainability is why.

We should take care of our land.

And not also that put ourselves.

(Blayke Torres) In my future, I’m planning on owning a farm.

I want to own a farm.

I want my kids to live off the land and not live off of food coming in from the barge because I know what they're eating.

I know they're eating food that I grew.

I know what's in it.

I know what I put in it.

Not other chemicals or unwanted items.

To me, it tastes better knowing what's in it, how where it grew, how it came up, and how long, and the effort that people put into it.

(Mahina Anguay) We are a rural, remote community, former plantation.

We have very deep roots and we're really proud community.

You know, we've always been self-sufficient.

We've always, you know, we've always survived.

You know, we're we're fighters we’re we’re Menehunes.

And I think what's really been good about this whole program is it's given my kids and definitely the school a sense of pride in what we're producing and how we're able to help bridge a need in our community.

(Leiana Apo) Here we have our students weeding - laulima with the hands.

A lot of times we have going on here, we have some papaya, some eggplant beets, tomatoes in the back.

There's Jamie Girl in the back, smiling as always when her laulima.

Everybody's all laughing, smiling, happy, because this is our element.

We love to be here.

(Jamie) We’re bonding together and pulling weeds, you know, making the garden look very nice.

(Leiana Apo) And what is your, what is your thoughts?

What is sustainability and what is natural resources to you?

What is our class to you?

(Jamie) This is everything this is life right here.

(Leiana Apo) Mālama ʻāina everything.

(Jamie) Everything.

We need this.

(Karen Kilar) Well, when I come back to this school in 20 years, I'm gonna be a teacher and what I hope to see is what I see now which is laulima hands working together, teamwork, collaboration and just perseverance through all the obstacles we have.