Growing Food, Strengthening Community & Caring for ʻĀina in Waiʻanae
In the heart of Lualualei Valley on Oʻahu’s west side, Kahumana is cultivating much more than food.
Founded in 1974 and rooted in Lualualei Valley since 1978, Kahumana has grown into a community-centered nonprofit where agriculture, food access, education, workforce development, housing, social services, and social enterprise come together. Today, its work extends across five campuses and more than 50 acres, grounded in a commitment to people, place, and ʻāina.
At the center of this work is Kahumana Organic Farms, a 31-acre certified organic farm growing approximately 100,000 pounds of local and organic produce each year. The farm takes a regenerative approach to agriculture, using permaculture principles and practices intended to build healthy soil, reduce waste, and strengthen Hawaii’s capacity to feed itself.
But Kahumana’s impact reaches well beyond what grows within its own fields.
Connecting Local Growers to Local Markets
Through the Kahumana Food Hub, backyard growers and small farmers across Oʻahu’s Leeward Coast can connect what they grow with a larger local food system.
The Food Hub aggregates and distributes locally grown fruits and vegetables to farmers markets, restaurants, grocery stores, CSA customers, and other buyers. This creates opportunities for growers to earn income from what they produce, helps keep good food from going to waste, and makes more locally grown food available within the community and across Oʻahu.
Kahumana reports that its Food Hub has worked with 201 growers and moved approximately 882,000 pounds of food over a four-year period.
The network is intentionally accessible. Food Hub membership can include small farmers and backyard growers as well as people caring for productive trees or other sources of locally grown food.
Food distributed through the Food Hub is naturally grown but is not necessarily USDA Certified Organic. Kahumana Organic Farms itself is a certified organic farm.
From the Farm to the Community
Kahumana creates multiple ways for locally grown food to reach local tables.
Its Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program offers fresh produce and fruit boxes featuring seasonal food from Kahumana and its network of local growers. Supporting the CSA helps create a more direct relationship between Hawaiʻi households, farms, and food producers.
Kahumana also brings its produce and other locally grown food to farmers markets in Waiʻanae and Kakaʻako. EBT is accepted at its farmers-market locations, with qualifying products eligible for EBT Double Bucks.
At the Kahumana Café, food grown just steps away becomes part of a farm-to-table menu highlighting local ingredients. Eating at the café does more than support a local meal—it helps support Kahumana’s broader nonprofit mission and community programs.
Agriculture With a Larger Kuleana
What makes Kahumana especially meaningful is the way agriculture connects with a much wider circle of community care.
Alongside farming and food distribution, Kahumana’s work includes services and opportunities for families experiencing homelessness, programs for adults with developmental disabilities and autism, youth food access, workforce development, education, and other pathways intended to help people grow and thrive.
Programs such as KauKau 4 Keiki connect local agriculture directly with food security, helping provide fresh, nutritious food to keiki and ʻohana while supporting Hawaii’s farmers and food producers.
In this way, a farm can become more than a place where food is grown.
It can create livelihoods.
Strengthen food security.
Connect growers with markets.
Provide meaningful work and learning.
Reduce food waste.
Nourish families.
And deepen relationships between people and ʻāina.
That interconnected approach is at the heart of Kahumana.
Their Kuleana
Nūʻu | Vision
A thriving kauhale ʻōiwi, a learning destination open to everyone, where aloha ʻāina is a way of life.
Kuleana | Mission
Inspire and empower our community to achieve our highest potential.
Values That Guide the Work
Kahumana identifies five values that guide how it serves its community:
Aloha — Love, compassion, respect, reciprocity, inclusion, and care for one another.
Lōkahi — Unity and togetherness, recognizing the strength and healing found in community.
Poʻokela — High expectations and stewardship, leading with strengths while continuing to learn and grow.
Hoʻomanawanui — Patience, fortitude, and gratitude—the understanding that meaningful work takes persistence.
ʻAuamo Kuleana — Carrying responsibility with care and sustaining the people and ʻāina of the community together.
Support Kahumana
There are many ways to participate in and strengthen this work.
🥬 Join the CSA
Bring locally grown fruits and vegetables into your home while supporting Kahumana and Hawaiʻi growers.
🌱 Support Local Growers
Shop through Kahumana’s Food Hub and farmers markets, where purchases help create markets for small farmers and backyard growers.
🍽️ Eat at Kahumana Café
Enjoy food rooted in the farm and local food system while supporting Kahumana’s nonprofit mission.
🧑🏽🌾 Grow With the Food Hub
If you are a backyard grower or small farmer on the Leeward Coast with quality produce to share, explore becoming part of the Kahumana Food Hub.
🤲 Volunteer
Kahumana offers opportunities to contribute time and hands-on support to its work. Current opportunities may vary, so connect directly with Kahumana before planning your visit.
❤️ Give
Donations help sustain Kahumana’s work across agriculture, food access, housing, disability services, youth programs, and community support.
Find Kahumana
Kahumana Food Hub & Organic Farms
86-660 Lualualei Homestead Road
Waiʻanae, HI 96792
Oʻahu, Hawaiʻi
Farmers Markets:
Waiʻanae — Saturdays
Kakaʻako — Saturdays
Hours, CSA availability, volunteer opportunities, café service, farmers-market schedules, and programs may change. Please confirm current information directly with Kahumana before visiting or participating.
Support local farms. Feed local families. Strengthen local growers. Care for ʻāina.
Every relationship between a farmer and a family, a backyard grower and a market, a meal and the land that nourished it helps build a Hawaiʻi where more of what sustains our communities can be grown, shared, and supported here at home.
Mahalo to the farmers, growers, workers, volunteers, partners, families, and community members who continue to carry this work forward.
