Hungry for something enriching?
At the Roots Program, we never get tired of talking or hearing about foods. We love to share what we know, and to learn more from you.
Communal Cooking Activities
Join us at one of our community workdays to brush up on your repertoire, share a treasured recipe, or taste a new dish. Some of our events feature cooking workgroups, where you'll cook side-by-side with high school students and kūpuna, beginners and professional chefs, and people of all cultures - everyone is welcome. At other events, volunteers are invited to work the land and then stay afterwards to share a meal, grown by previous volunteers, prepared by our skilled staff.
Cooking Demonstrations
Roots staff perform cooking demonstrations and food sampling activities throughout Kalihi, featuring heritage ingredients and unfamiliar fare alike. Through partnership with local organizations, Roots is able to widely share an approach to cooking that values tradition, creativity, and passion, delivering food that is delicious and healthy, not just for the consumer but for the whole food system.
In the past, Roots has performed salad-making activities at Kalihi schools; distributed samples of pumpkin and pinto bean chili at a Kuhio Park community health fair produced by Parents and Children Together (PACT); attended the Linapuni Elementary School back-to-school fair, where children tasted fish, breadfruit, and coconut milk stew; and many more.
Inquire about hosting a cooking demonstration here.
Community Educators
Collaboration with our knowledgeable neighbors has produced some of our favorite cooking activities. Kalihi residents come from diverse cultural heritages, and have a wealth of knowledge about traditional foods. We've partnered with a few of our friends in the community, to demonstrate and share some of their most important (and ono) foods at community events: poi-pounding at Crop Shop Food Fests, Chuukese kon-making at the Palama Settlement Ulu Festival, Panamanian tamales at the Roots Cafe. We'd love to learn more. If you have a cultural food you'd like to share, please contact us here.
Recipes
Please visit our Blog and YouTube Channel for more recipes