About 15 Hawaiʻi Community College students harvested more than 50 pounds of bananas along the Hāmākua Coast to feed the community.
On a recent day in April, students chopped down the banana trees and reduced them to mulch, before washing, drying and packing the fruit at the college’s 3-acre farm Mauliola (thriving or healthy), located in Pepe‘ekeo, and then loading it into their van for delivery in Hilo.
“It’s been actually life-changing to have a program in which you’re hands-on every single day,” said student Kristen Decoito.
Since 2023, Hawaiʻi CC has donated more than 1,000 lbs of fresh produce from Mauliola to the Hawaiʻi…
