LHES’s STEM Capstone Project: Food Sustainability

by Hershey Lei Estacio Manuel and Miguel Nakao, Jr.

Diagram showing how many homes in Lāna‘i City grow food in their yards.

Mrs. Michelle Fujie-Kaauamo’s STEM Capstone class at Lāna‘i High & Elementary School (LHES) allows students to create and develop projects that benefit the Lāna‘i community using Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM). This course enables students to choose topics aligned with their interests and passions, fostering a deep understanding of community needs while applying their STEM knowledge to real-world problems. One such project focused on food sustainability, where students Hershey Lei Manuel and Miguel Nakao conducted research and data analysis to address the island’s food security issues. Through this hands-on approach, students gain valuable experience in research, data analysis and project management, ultimately making a tangible impact on their community.

Food Sustainability

The purpose of our STEM Capstone project is to help address the food insecurity problem on Lāna‘i through home growers and commercial farmers. For the longest time, our island has relied on other states and the continent for importing food. This dependency has persisted for many years, significantly contributing to Hawai‘i’s fragile food system. On our small island, this issue is magnified as the reliance on imports grows while the value of our local produce diminishes, increasing our food insecurity.

Last semester, we worked as interns at the Kapua Lāna‘i farm with our mentor, Kapua Weinhouse, to tackle this issue directly. Our project’s primary objective was to validate the range of crops being grown in individual homes around Lāna‘i City and determine the type of gardens they had. We used Survey123, an app for managing surveys and analyzing data, to document various factors, including the environment where the crops were grown and the presence of different animals at each home, apartment and government building. Once we completed the surveys, we imported our data into a spreadsheet for final curation before entering it into the arcGIS database.

The bigger challenge was learning to use arcGIS properly and presenting the data clearly and concisely. We created a map showing Lāna‘i City and the density of gardens in various areas. The darker the area on the map, the more gardens there were; lighter areas indicated fewer gardens.

Our data revealed two important findings: Over 50% of homes have food growing on their property, with the possibility of more than 56% as we couldn’t see the entire property for 12% of homes. We also found that many gardens grow fruits, such as tangerines and papayas. Based on these findings, we realized Lāna‘i could be more food secure due to the significant number of home growers.

Before data collection, we underestimated the role of home gardens in the island’s food sustainability. From our surveys, it was clear that gardens growing food were visible from the streets; some were extensive food gardens, while others had single papaya trees. Regardless, 56.1% of homes in our community have gardens that grow food. This means that when addressing food insecurity on Lāna‘i, we must consider home gardeners.

Toward the end of our internship, we met with Maui County Councilmember Gabe Johnson, Hawai‘i Farmers Union United and the Maui Food Hub to share our findings and analysis. Through these collaborations, we hope to make a lasting impact on the island’s food security.