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   Lā'ie Elementary School's garden grows
October 5, 2010 Edition
In This Issue
Laie Elementary students learn to grow local, eat healthy
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Aloha ,

As you know, Envision Lā'ie is all about planning and working to create a sustainable community. To commemorate national "eat local" week, we wanted to highlight our Lā'ie Elementary School students, who are in their fourth year of a food-sustainability project. We joined them last week for their latest harvest.

Mahalo,

The Envision Lā'ie Team
Lā'ie Elementary students learn to grow local, eat healthy

Commemorating national "eat local" week

Fourth graders at the Lā'ie Elementary School harvested Roma tomatoes and Japanese eggplant from the school's garden program last Thursday.
 
On Friday they ate homemade salsa made from the produce -- and loved it.
 
Lā'ie Elementary's garden was launched as a hands-on food sustainability project to encourage students to partake of fresh-grown, local produce -- and to eat healthy.
 
Embued with a passion for "authentic learning," teachers Yvonne Ah Sue and Linda Sao and parent/professor Cynthia Compton from Brigham Young University-Hawai'i embarked on Lā'ie Elementary's garden project four years ago.
 
Many others have helped the garden to flourish, including Evans Construction and financial partner and resource, Kokua Hawai'i Foundation.
 
"There's a lot to be learned from tending a garden," says fourth grade teacher Ah Sue. "The least of it may be growing food to eat."
 
"We learned about native Americans and Hawaiians," says fourth grader Jane, who has been involved in the gardening program for two years. In the classroom, students compare native American, European and Hawaiian systems of agriculture.
 
"It teaches us about responsibility," says classmate Tiuete,  and about how things actually grow.

The fourth graders' harvest also coincided with last week's Eat Local Challenge sponsored by Kanu Hawai'i.



     Envision Lā'ie represents a diverse group of residents and stakeholders of Ko'olau Loa working together to study Lā'ie and plan for its future possibilities, a future that protects quality of life and emphasizes the values of the people who live in the Ko'olau Loa region.
     For more information, visit:
www.envisionlaie.com