#Kokua Kalihi Valley

The Hawaiʻi Community Foundation, through its Mental and Behavioral Health Stigma-Reduction Messaging Grants Program, has awarded $282,500 in seed grants to 17 nonprofit organizations to support building organizational capacity for messaging that reduces mental and behavioral health stigma within Island communities.

On Maui, Common Ground Collective utilizes field work and research to create food security and economic opportunity for Maui communities. With this award, CGC will work to decrease Maui’s reliance on imported goods by enhancing the local food system, support local agricultural producers by providing distribution assistance to new local growers, and expand the capacity of local food businesses to contribute to the island’s regional food system and those in need.

Staff and volunteers for Ho’oulu ‘Āina work to harvest locally-grown plants for food and indigenous medicine.  The program is nestled at the back of Kalihi Valley and currently operates under a recently extended 35-year lease.