Congratulations Kua O Ka La!
The students, staff, and faculty of Kua O Ka La (KOKL) New Century Public Charter School have earned two honors that no other school in the state can take away from them. Because of their commitment to well-being, KOKL is now the first charter school and the first K-12 public school in Hawaii to become Blue Zones Project Approved™.
“As a Hawaiian-focused charter school, we naturally embrace many Blue Zones Project principles with a foundation of relationships with our place, each other, and our community,” said Susie Osborne, KOKL’s founder and head of school. “We also struggle with many of the health challenges that face our Native Hawaiian community and hope to systematically reverse some of these issues by supporting our youth in making healthy choices during these formative years of their life.”
KOKL’s agriculture and culinary arts programs made the school a natural candidate for Blue Zones Project approval. Over the years, students and staff transformed the school’s rocky expanse into a series of gardens that now produce kale, cucumbers, taro, corn, and much more. These crops and other locally sourced produce fuel the culinary arts programs. After years of recipe testing and photo documentation, students produced the cookbook, Ike ‘Aina: From Seed to Table, and are currently working on a second cookbook focused on ulu, or breadfruit.
By adopting other Blue Zones Project practices like purpose workshops, high school students were able to identify their own gifts and strengths. The school also developed partnerships with organizations such as Hooulu Lahui, a native Hawaiian nonprofit, Richardson’s Ocean Center, and the American Heart Association to encourage students to move naturally while learning about themselves and the environment.
“We’re so grateful to have the good work done by our kumu and school recognized,” said Osborne, on hearing the school had been approved. “One can have a vision, but we need the team to be mission-aligned and working together to actualize the ideas. While many of our initiatives are considered forward thinking, we see this as a baseline with much more work needing to occur and we want to raise the bar in addressing the total well-being of our youth, families and community.”
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Learn more at hawaii.bluezonesproject.com
