March 16, 2015
The owners of two growing businesses – Māla Kaluʻulu and Counter Culture Foods – will share $40,000 in seed money as the winners of the 2015 Mahi‘ai Match-Up Agricultural Business Plan Contest sponsored by Kamehameha Schools and the Pauahi Foundation.
Each business also received an agricultural lease from KS with up to five years of waived rent, and start-up seed money from the Pauahi Foundation. The two prize-winning businesses will produce breadfruit, turmeric and raw, probiotic kimchi and tempeh as their primary products.
The winners were revealed at a recent fundraising gala at Dole Cannery’s Pōmaika‘i Ballrooms. The event raised $100,000 – $40,000 will go to the winning farmers, and $60,000 will go toward agricultural scholarships and grants to help cultivate a new generation of local farmers.
Kamehameha Schools’ policy is to give preference to applicants of Hawaiian ancestry to the extent permitted by law.
