Traditional Agriculture • Food Security • Community Health • Cultural Education • Mālama ʻĀina
Restoring ʻĀina. Growing Food. Feeding Community. Carrying Knowledge Forward.
Sometimes stewardship begins with a plan.
Sometimes it begins because people are hungry.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, families across Hawaiʻi suddenly found themselves facing lost jobs, isolation and uncertainty about something fundamental:
food.
For Joey Cadiz and the growing community around Laulau Solutions, the response was rooted in something Hawaiʻi had known for generations.
Feed people with food from the ʻāina.
Kalo.
Lūʻau leaf.
ʻUlu.
ʻUala.
Maiʻa.
Traditional foods that nourish more than the body because they carry relationships between people, place, culture and generations.
What began as an effort to prepare and distribute free laulau grew through donations, farmers, friends and volunteers.
More than 10,000 laulau were ultimately distributed across Oʻahu during the pandemic.
But Laulau Solutions did not stop when the immediate emergency passed.
They followed the question deeper.
If healthy local food helped a community through crisis, where should that food come from?
The answer led them back to the land.
Today, Laulau Solutions is restoring loʻi kalo in Waialua, growing traditional foods, teaching keiki and adults, welcoming volunteers onto the ʻāina and working toward a Hawaiʻi that is healthier, more connected and better able to feed itself.
For turning emergency food service into lasting food resilience, restoring traditional Hawaiian agriculture through hands-on community action, and creating a place where knowledge and kuleana can move from one generation to another, Support Local Hawaiʻi is honored to recognize Laulau Solutions as a ♦ Diamond Steward.
It Started With Feeding People
Laulau Solutions was born during one of Hawaii’s most uncertain moments.
When COVID stay-at-home orders disrupted employment, movement and access to food, Cadiz saw families struggling to get adequate nutrition.
His response was practical:
make laulau and give it away.
The first effort was small.
Then community stepped in.
Farmers contributed food.
Friends helped.
Volunteers showed up.
Donations arrived.
Dozens of laulau became hundreds. At one point, the operation was producing approximately 500 a week on Cadiz’s days off.
Eventually, more than 10,000 were distributed across Oʻahu.
There was no complicated theory behind it.
People needed food.
People had something to give.
So they gave it.
From Food Relief to Food Resilience
There is an important difference between responding to hunger and building a community better able to feed itself.
Laulau Solutions began moving toward the second.
The organization describes its mission as restoring health, economy and land management for the people of Hawaiʻi through traditional practices and education.
That meant going upstream.
If laulau was going to contain kalo, lūʻau, ʻulu, ʻuala and maiʻa, someone had to grow those foods.
Land had to be cared for.
Knowledge had to be practiced.
People had to know how to cultivate, harvest and prepare what Hawaiʻi could produce.
So the work moved onto the ʻāina.
Bringing the Loʻi Back
At its Waialua farm, Laulau Solutions has taken on the long physical work of bringing neglected agricultural land back into production.
Its larger restoration effort encompasses approximately 13 acres with the potential for both māla and loʻi kalo.
By early 2026, Cadiz reported that the organization had opened five of ten loʻi, with additional restoration still ahead.
This isn’t restoration for appearance.
The intention is food.
Kalo grown there has gone back into the community, and Laulau Solutions is working toward a system where traditional foods can be grown, produced and processed in one place.
Every cleared section matters.
Every planted huli matters.
Every harvest matters.
Because restoring a loʻi is also restoring capacity.
The capacity for land to feed people again.
Hāloa
To understand why kalo matters in Hawaiʻi, it cannot be viewed simply as another crop.
Kalo occupies a profound place within Native Hawaiian genealogy, culture and relationship to ʻāina.
Laulau Solutions’ work therefore connects agriculture with something larger.
Their educational programs introduce people to traditional kalo cultivation, Hawaiian cultural heritage, sustainable agriculture and healthy eating. The organization’s goal is not simply to operate a productive farm, but to create a thriving loʻi that can also serve as a place of cultural education.
That changes the meaning of a workday.
People aren’t merely moving mud.
They are learning why the water matters.
Why the plant matters.
Why the food matters.
Why the place matters.
And why taking care of ʻāina is inseparable from taking care of people.
Our Keiki Are Our Future
Laulau Solutions describes education as one of its three primary program areas.
Its ʻāina-based curriculum brings together traditional farming practices with contemporary cultivation and food preparation, creating farm-to-table learning opportunities for young people and the broader community.
That may become one of the organization’s most enduring contributions.
A harvest feeds people today.
Knowledge can feed generations.
When a young person learns how kalo grows, how food reaches a table, and how human health is connected to healthy land, something has been planted that cannot be measured only in pounds of produce.
It becomes knowledge they carry.
Perhaps knowledge they share.
Perhaps one day knowledge they teach.
A Place to Come Back To
The farm has also become more than an agricultural project.
Cadiz has described it as a gathering place—a place for community, cultural reconnection, mentorship, physical work and even emotional release.
Groups working with at-risk youth have come to the farm. Volunteers arrive to work alongside one another. Families participate. People who may have never stepped into a loʻi can put their hands into the mud and begin learning.
Laulau Solutions currently holds community workdays, generally on Wednesdays, for people who want to learn about loʻi kalo while helping restore the ʻāina.
There is no substitute for that kind of learning.
You can read about mālama ʻāina.
You can watch someone cultivate kalo.
But there is another kind of understanding that comes when you show up and work.
Resilience Is Not Theoretical
The work has not been easy.
Agriculture rarely is.
In early 2026, severe flooding struck the Waialua farm. Floodwaters swept through the property, damaging crops, tools and equipment. One worker became trapped by the rising water and was rescued by a coworker familiar with the loʻi and terrain.
The farm suffered substantial losses.
And still, the commitment remained:
rebuild.
That matters to Support Local Hawaii because resilience isn’t simply the ability to survive a disaster.
It is the ability to maintain relationships, knowledge and systems that help communities recover from one.
Local agriculture is part of that system.
People who know how to grow food are part of that system.
Productive ʻāina is part of that system.
Community networks are part of that system.
And people willing to show up for one another are absolutely part of that system.
Why Support Local Hawaii Recognizes Laulau Solutions
Support Local Hawaii’s Diamond recognition is reserved for Stewards demonstrating exceptional leadership through action.
Laulau Solutions didn’t begin with a large institution or elaborate program.
It began with a need.
People were hungry.
So food was prepared.
Farmers helped.
Volunteers helped.
Community helped.
Thousands of meals went out.
Then instead of treating that moment as finished, Laulau Solutions carried the lesson forward.
They began restoring land.
Growing food.
Teaching keiki.
Welcoming volunteers.
Rebuilding traditional agricultural capacity.
Creating pathways back to kalo.
Connecting health with nutrition.
Connecting nutrition with agriculture.
Connecting agriculture with ʻāina.
And connecting ʻāina back to community.
That is why this work matters.
The laulau was never only the solution.
The deeper solution was relationship.
People caring for food.
People caring for land.
People caring for knowledge.
People caring for people.
For transforming a moment of crisis into an ongoing commitment to food security, cultural education, community health and mālama ʻāina, Support Local Hawaii proudly recognizes Laulau Solutions as a ♦ Diamond Steward.
Diamond Stewardship in Action
Community Health
Laulau Solutions emerged during COVID by providing free, nutritious traditional food to people experiencing need, ultimately distributing more than 10,000 laulau across Oʻahu.
Mālama ʻĀina
The organization is restoring approximately 13 acres with the potential for loʻi kalo and māla while bringing previously neglected agricultural land back into productive stewardship.
Food Resilience
Kalo and other traditional foods including ʻulu, ʻuala and maiʻa are part of a larger effort to strengthen access to locally grown, culturally rooted food.
Education
ʻĀina-based programming connects keiki, schools, community groups and individuals with traditional agriculture, cultural heritage, nutrition and contemporary cultivation.
Community Participation
Regular workdays give volunteers an opportunity to learn about loʻi kalo while directly contributing to restoration.
Resilience
Even after significant flooding damaged the Waialua farm in 2026, the organization remained committed to rebuilding and continuing its work.
The Solution Was Always Bigger Than Laulau
A laulau can feed someone for a day.
A loʻi can produce food season after season.
Knowledge can move through generations.
And a community that understands how to care for its land, grow food and care for one another becomes stronger every time that knowledge is practiced.
That is the journey Laulau Solutions represents.
From a meal to a farm. From a farm to a classroom. From a classroom to a community.
And from one act of aloha during a crisis to something that can continue feeding Hawaiʻi long after that crisis has passed.
Plant. Teach. Feed. Share. Restore.
Then teach someone else how to do the same.
That is food resilience.
That is mālama ʻāina. That is Aloha in action.
Support Laulau Solutions
Organization: Laulau Solutions / Laulau Hawaiʻi
Location: Waialua, North Shore, Oʻahu
Founded: During the COVID-19 pandemic
Founder: Joey Cadiz
Stewardship Areas: Traditional Agriculture • Food Security • Community Health • Cultural Education • Kalo • Mālama ʻĀina
Support Local Hawaii Recognition: ♦ Diamond Steward
The organization currently invites people to donate, volunteer and participate in community workdays. Its official site lists laulausolutions@gmail.com, (808) 218-5218, and Instagram @laulausolutions; its published mailing address is P.O. Box 893666, Mililani, Hawaiʻi 96789.
