You are invited to participate in an interactive seminar designed to address the impending food crisis on our island. It will be held at Kauai Community College, in the Trade Technology Building, room 114, on September 16, 18, 23 and 25, from 4:00 till 6:00 pm. Please see the attached description for more details.

This seminar, entitled “Growing Food,” will be the first in a series designed interactively with and for the participants along with specialized food industry consultants to accomplish the following purposes:

1. To increase the level of food self-sufficiency for our island by improving the production of locally grown food in home and community gardens and in small farming enterprises.
2. To engage our residents in planning and managing these gardens as a means for reducing our dependence on imported food ….. its rising costs, inferior nutritional quality and diminishing supply
3. To design programs that will provide the training and technical assistance required to insure the success of these gardens as a reliable source of wholesome food for our families, markets and restaurants
4. To develop grants and fund raising projects that will provide the necessary
funding for the successful start-up and expansion of these gardens

This initial seminar is intended to bring together the individuals and organizations that are willing to address the challenge of redesigning our food supply system with a genuine commitment to share ideas, develop plans, identify the resources available and needed, and prepare a time-table of the activities necessary to incrementally accomplish the goal.

We are structuring this program as a seminar to facilitate cooperative thinking and collective planning. The $45 fee is intended to cover administrative costs and to acquire resource materials. We will be providing you with lists of local resources and reference materials obtained from UH, College of Tropical Agriculture, University of California Santa Cruz, the Center for Sustainable Agricultural Research and Education and several other leading food industry sources.

Please call the Office of Continuing Education and Training at KCC at 245-8318 to register. If you have questions contact me at 246-4859 or 742-7820.

Let’s get proactive in addressing our problem. We can develop some creative solutions that will benefit us all. Who will do it if we don’t…??

Best regards,

Glenn Hontz
Kauai Food Industry Forum
Community Gardens Project