For the past year, the Roots program has been examining the cultural food system of Kalihi. Click Report to learn more.
Returning to Our Roots
Mahalo Meals
Throughout the COVID pandemic, Roots Cafe’ prepared hundreds of delicious meals for seniors and families in our community. Seeing how grateful our community was, Roots began making meals for KKV’s hardworking staff every Friday. Jesse Lipman and his team used the freshest ingredients, boxing up lunches for staff to pick-up in the Wellness Center. Over the past 18 months, the team gave away more than 3,775 mahalo meals. All of the produce, meats, and ingredients have been locally sourced, thereby supporting KKV’s farm partners and the local food system.
Many thanks to the Consuelo Foundation for grants that funded the mahalo meals! At a time when COVID-19 shut the Café, preventing us from sharing meals, the mahalo meals made staff feel taken care of. We are all grateful for this thoughtful support.
In exciting news, Roots now also offers 50% off your entire EBT / SNAP purchase of cultural starches, fruits, vegetables, and some value-added products. You can still purchase proteins (fish, pork, beef, and eggs) and other value added products but will not be eligible for discount.
Food Hub
The Roots Food Hub has ʻulu and our Kalihi community is in love! They have been seeing the influx of community members lining up outside of the Roots Market by 9:00am to purchase their beloved starch, breadfruit / ʻulu, mae / mai. Throughout ʻulu season there is about 600 - 1000+ pounds of ʻulu coming to Kalihi a week from small farms all around the island of ʻOahu. Farmers understand the importance of feeding our Kalihi community ʻulu and feel honored for that opportunity. As ʻulu season and production continues to increase, be sure to stop by the Roots Food Hub (Tuesday and Thursday, 11:00am - 1;30pm) to grab some and other locally grown fruits, vegetable, cultural starches, proteins, and value-added products.
