[intro music]   HIKI NŌ, Hawai‘i's New Wave of Storytellers.

Aloha!

ʻO Kaulupono Osorio koʻu inoa a  he haumāna papa ʻeiwa au ma ke kula ʻo   Nāwahīokalaniʻōpuʻu ma ka mokupuni o Hawaiʻi.

Welcome to HIKI NŌ on PBS Hawai‘i.

My name is   Kaulupono Osorio and I'm a freshman at Ke  Kula O Nāwahīokalani‘ōpu‘u Public Charter   School on Hawai‘i Island.

I'm stoked to  be here to share the work of Hawai‘i's   New Wave of Storytellers.

In this episode,  we're diving into stories about he‘e nalu,   or surfing.

We'll watch several memorable  HIKI NŌ stories about the power of he‘e nalu,   including one student's journey of learning  to bodyboard.

We'll investigate what goes into   preparing a school lunch plate and what Hawai‘i  schools are doing about meeting a statewide goal   to use more local ingredients.

We'll watch a  cinematic poem about feeling grateful to be in   the present.

And we'll meet a charming, long time  tour guide at the historic Bishop Museum on Oahu.

Mākaukau, let's get into it.

To start the show,  let's watch this HIKI NŌ student reflection about   how Eddie Wirtz, a student at Ka‘ū High and  Pāhala Elementary School on Hawai‘i Island,   started his favorite hobby of bodyboarding.

I've been bodyboarding since I was four,   learning in small surf, avoiding waves that  were too big or scary, until my 13th birthday,   when my parents bought me a brand new  bodyboard, fins and a leash.

So of course,   I had to put them to the test.

I went to  Kāwā on the southeast side of Hawai‘i Island,   where the waves were about four to six feet.

My  heart was racing as I tried to paddle out, until a   big set tossed me around and washed me all the way  back to the beach.

For a while, I sat on the sand,   board in my lap, watching the surf.

I started to  time the waves until I found my opportunity and   courage to paddle back out.

I jumped in the water,  paddling and duck diving out into the lineup,   but being so inexperienced, I caught two waves  and came back to shore.

I didn't have enough   experience or stamina to try and make the paddle  out again, but pushing myself changed something in   me, and I was determined to conquer those waves,  till eventually I did.

I went back out again and   again, and now I spend every free moment I can  bodyboarding.

To me, bodyboarding is a way to   escape, a way to forget all my troubles and take a  moment to relax.

And Kāwā will always be one of my   favorite spots to bodyboard.

This is Edward Wirtz  from Kau High School for HIKI NŌ, on PBS Hawai‘i.

[ocean wave] Let's keep riding the nalu,   or wave.

Our next story comes from our archives,  and it was produced by Kamehameha Schools Maui.

They interview the school surf team about the  benefits of the Hawaiian sport of riding waves.

Surfing is a sport that requires both skill  and patience.

Patience is a familiar aspect   to the Kamehameha Schools Maui Surf Team.

For over the last few years that they have   participated in the Maui interscholastic  surf meet, they have not yet taken first.

We just practice on our own, and then maybe, if we  have to compete with the group, just show up to,   like, one or two practices with them, and  then surf in the contest and hope to do good.

And next year, Coach Campbell hopes to change all  that.

They'll be starting organized practices,   and the students will have more than just  the final championship to compete in.

I'm hoping that we could get backing from  the school and practices scheduled, get more   commitment from our students and everything  like that, so we can be competitive.

Because,   I mean, we're a Hawaiian school, so I mean,  culturally, we should represent, you know.

We   should do well in this sport.

I'm hoping that  we could have more practices.

And I think the   plan for next year is to have three events on  Maui and then a state tournament on O‘ahu.

Well, I think added practices will only  help me get better, like competitions,   get us more experience, so that we  can surf better under pressure.

Surfing on an organized team will help the  students get better in athletic competitions,   but Coach Campbell intends to make sure that the  team stays in touch with their Hawaiian culture.

I mean, this is what I hope for,  preserving it as a cultural practice.

I mean, I feel like culturally, we should have  a good team, and it should mean a little bit   more to our kids just because we're Hawaiians.

Yeah, I feel proud as a Hawaiian to surf.

It feels   good to practice everything that my ancestors  are doing to perpetuate the Hawaiian culture.

By making the effort to preserve  an ancient Hawaiian practice,   perhaps someday in the near future, the Kamehameha  Schools Maui Surf Team will be able to catch a   ride into victory.

From up country Maui,  I'm Matt Spenser reporting for HIKI NŌ.

[ocean wave] Now for a touching profile   story produced by Moanalua High School about  a legendary guy, nicknamed “Mooch” on O‘ahu.

There's a close-knit community of surfers who  consider him a mentor at their home break near   Ala Moana Beach Park.

E Nānā Kākou.

Let's watch.

When I catch a wave, it's like a drawing.

You draw   it up, if you succeed, and the drawing came to  as he planned it, yeah, you feel really lifted.

And you know that he loves surfing.

It's  obvious.

You come up to him.

Right when he   paddles in the water, you can just feel that.

You know, when you first start surfing,   it's all for yourself, catching the waves, but now  it's better to give that wave away.

Makes me feel   happy and kind of like the job done, you know.

In Waikīkī, first time visitors and locals look   to Perry Fernandez, better known  as Mooch, for those surfing needs.

He does board rentals, fixes boards, so people  are always giving him supplies to fix boards.

Trust me, you can come down here in your free  time, you will see him with his rake and his   dust pan, doing what he do, just every day.

It gives me longevity on this earth, you know,   by helping.

I try to take every  opportunity that I can to help.

He always helping people down here who is going  for surf lessons, you know, even swimming.

Anything that you need help with, Mooch is there.

Aloha everybody.

This is Mooch and come and surf   with me when you guys can.

Because of Mooch's dedication   to surfing and helping others, many  didn't realize his unique situation.

Me and my wife, we separated, peaceful  separation, and so I just stayed in the   van and stayed at the beach.

Sometimes  there's no food, sometimes you gotta go   to the bathroom, but all in all, it's okay.

According to the Associated Press, Hawai‘i   has the highest homeless rate in the nation per  capita.

Although Mooch is a part of the statistic,   he receives ways of help from the community.

I give him anything I have, but he's such a   warm- and big-hearted person  that he's not going to ask.

I appreciate it a lot, and I feel that it's  come full circle, because what I do when   helping others, then it comes around back to me.

I really believe that all helping is reciprocal.

It's cyclical.

And with Mooch like, I help  him by bringing him breakfast in the morning,   but he helps me a lot by fixing up my boards.

Helping people, I want to go out there,   help people as well, you know.

And I  feel good about it, you know.

It's not   what we're getting back, it’s what we give.

With his desire to create a change, Mooch will   continue to push others to benefit the people.

Cuz sometimes we all need help, you know.

So,   if everybody's helping, it's just positive,  positiveness, you know, aloha and all that   stuff, and it's, it's all good, man.

This is Erin Nomura from Moanalua High   School for HIKI NŌ.

[ocean wave]   After all that surfing, I'm getting pōloli,  hungry.

Let's switch to another topic, lunch,   school lunch, in fact.

We have several stories  to share on the topic, and the first one comes   from Wheeler Middle School students on O‘ahu.

It will give you a greater appreciation for   those who work in school cafeterias.

What's for lunch is a question wondered   by the approximately 100,000 students  eating Hawai‘i Public School lunch each   day.

What they might not realize is that  what's on the plate is not an individual   decision by the school cafeteria manager.

We just follow the state and federal guidelines   for what's on top of the plate.

We have no  choice on any deviations from it.

There's a   group of managers that go through that, and  we rotate from middle school, high school,   elementary schools, all take turns on  top of that menu planning committee.

Once the menus are established, the 196 school  cafeteria managers, like Mr. Andrew Pang,   will select which menus will be used on  what day.

Each menu also requires the   use of committee provided recipes.

For example, your three bean salad,   that it's a standard recipe.

I think we're having hot dogs.

Shopping for supplies involves more than  just them going to the grocery store.

Food   is ordered in advance once or twice each  week from the approved state vendors.

There is purchase items and there's federal  commodity items.

Federal commodity items is what   comes from the federal government.

You might have  your hamburger; you might have your chicken.

You   might have oil or something like that.

Everything  else is purchased from local vendors.

We have to   order it within two weeks and then come in.

Processing weekly deliveries of 350 pounds   of chicken and making sure pantry items are  properly stored are another responsibility   of the cafeteria managers and staff.

When all health and safety guidelines   are followed, then the cooking can begin.

We start at six.

What happens is that all the   cafeteria workers, they start the lunches, they're  starting the breakfast.

They might be mixing the   bread.

They might be making, like this morning,  they'll be making banana bread for breakfast.

And   then after they finish the banana bread, they'll  move on to the bread that's for lunch.

They'll   be making things that's for the next day.

They're  just making everything that's ready for that day,   making it for lunch.

And then they're  prepping, getting ready for the next day.

The average meal costs $5.05, but students pay  less than half of that, or $2.50 per meal, due to   the almost $50 million in federal reimbursements.

So next time students are standing in line to get   their serving of soft-shell taco or hot dogs, they  should think about all the unseen work that went   into getting it on their plate.

This is Lorynel  Martinez from Wheeler Middle School, for HIKI NŌ.

[ocean wave] Now that we have that background,   it's time for a school lunch update from Waikīkī  Elementary School on O‘ahu.

Students produce this   next HIKI NŌ opinion editorial about how Hawai‘i  is working to incorporate more local ingredients   into our school ‘aina awakea, or lunches.

Ever wonder where your daily   school lunch might come from?

We dove into some research to find out.

On a regular day of school lunch, we  thought that there would be half locally   sourced foods and half imported food on our  plates, but our prediction was incorrect.

For example, if we had chicken patty, emoticon  mashed potatoes and slushies, only the lettuce   and tomatoes might be locally sourced.

The  bread for the chicken patty is baked in school,   but the ingredients aren't locally sourced.

So, most of the produce is locally sourced.

We got watercress, papaya, also our green,  locally green salad comes from Kunia farms,   but that's pretty much it.

As far as like the rest  of like, the bulk it comes from the mainland.

According to December 2022 annual report on  Farm to School Meals by the Ulupono Initiative,   the percentage of fresh local food products  purchased by the State Department of Education   for all schools statewide was only 6.2%.

The state  government wants to increase that percentage,   so the Hawai‘i DOE spend 30% of  its food budget locally by 2030.

According to the Ulupono Initiative, achieving the  30% local benchmark would create annual demand of   about 15 to 20 million for local farmers.

Imagine  all that money staying in Hawai‘i.

That's so much   better than spending all of our money on imported  foods.

Uncle Shannon Shimizu says that it can   be challenging to get local ingredients.

The reason we have a difficult time is like,   if there's like, flooding, or, you know, the  weather is bad and the harvest is bad, and   then we can't really use the food.

So, like, for  example, our local greens.

The beginning of the   school year, from August and September, we were  fine.

I think the weather was bad.

So from like,   October, November, and December, we couldn't  get the local greens.

And then back in January,   like last month, we started getting it again.

Uncle Shannon said another problem with getting   locally sourced food on our plate is demand.

So, our most popular here at Waikīkī is like,   today we had the mini corn dogs.

That's very  popular.

Hot dog is another popular one,   nachos, chicken nuggets or chicken tenders with  French fries and cheese pizzas.

There's like,   our real popular dishes here at Waikiki, Since these are the popular meals at our school,   it limits well locally sourced  foods Uncle Shannon orders.

So, I can order it, but sometimes I don't  order like certain ones, because it's not   real popular, like wan bok and stuff.

One way we can help solve this problem   is by helping to create a new menu that includes  local ingredients.

Imagine a beef curry with local   beef and ‘ulu, or breadfruit, or a fruit  salad with star fruit, papaya and bananas   from our school garden instead of the canned  version.

That way, they become way more popular.

This is Allie Ching- And Clara Tokuda from Waikiki Elementary   School for HIKI NŌ, on PBS Hawai‘i.

[ocean wave]   Students at Waimea High School on Kaua‘i  also take their lunch very seriously.

This   next story was produced after their  school lunch options were altered.

When Waimea High School students started  their second quarter of the 2013-2014   school year, they immediately found  something was missing at lunchtime,   a second meal choice, also known as wiki.

Bottom line is the executive decision would come   down to between myself and the cafeteria manager.

But it, you know, it’s nothing personal.

It's just   it just it was something that we had to do, and  in light of the fact that we also lost cafeteria   workers there.

It was a prudent financial  decision that we had to make at the time.

The second meal choice, wiki, was a  nonrefundable à la carte meal choice,   such as saimin, chicken tenders, or a sandwich.

I don't really care about the second choice   or wiki because, like, I'm happy  with whatever there is for lunch.

Many people wish they still  had a second meal choice.

I think it's a real inconvenience, because  sometimes the cafeteria people write down   what we're having for lunch one day, but you  show up and it's a totally different lunch,   and they didn't follow the lunch menu.

If you  don't eat it, or you're allergic, you pretty   much have to starve for the rest of the day.

This decision has also affected faculty members.

I think it was nice when students and  faculty had a choice between wiki or lunch,   and it was good to have options, so it is  unfortunate that we no longer have the choice,   but I can see where sacrifices or decisions  had to be made based on budget cuts and   resources not available anymore.

So, we all have  to just make do, and again, if you don't like   what's offered, you can always bring your own.

This is Emily Iannucchi from Waimea High School,   reporting for HIKI NŌ.

[ocean wave]   Now we'd like to take a pause to enjoy a  personal narrative from Emma Roy, a senior   at H.P.

Baldwin High School on Maui.

She  has shared multiple visual poems with us   throughout her high school career, and this  latest one is about appreciating life and   being present.

Enjoy.

[slow piano music]   I'm starting to notice things I've never  saw before.

Well, maybe I did see them,   I just wasn't paying attention.

It's  almost as if life was passing me by,   and I was just letting it.

I find that  it's easy to wish to be someplace else,   to experience a different life, or wish for  better experiences, but now I feel different.

I   there's something about slowing down and  breathing, noticing the present.

That's   so beautiful.

[ocean wave]   Like Emma's poem reminds us, it is  good to cherish our surroundings.

Those sentiments are shared by teachers in the  upcoming piece as they discover an almost hidden   outdoor museum in Mānoa.

This story was produced  by students at McKinley High School on O‘ahu.

Tucked deep in Mānoa Valley, you'll find  the Mānoa Heritage Center, an outdoor   classroom with historical roots.

Jenny Engle, the  Director of Education at Mānoa Heritage Center,   says the nonprofit began when Sam and  Mary Cooke wanted to inspire people to be   thoughtful stewards of their community.

They are able to purchase this parcel,   as well as the two parcels that create our  lower campus today.

And so, it kind of begins   this idea of creating Mānoa Heritage Center.

Founded in 1996, the Mānoa Heritage Center's   goal is to educate and inspire others on  Hawai‘i's culture and natural heritage   through schools and cultural practitioners.

That's two sides.

We're gonna end up fitting   them anyways, and then we're gonna end up  stripping them into the appropriate sizes.

Included on the grounds is Kuali‘i, a century  old home, as well as native Hawaiian Gardens,   the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Visitor  Education Hale, and Kūka‘ō‘ō Heiau,   a reconstructed ancient Hawaiian temple.

We  spoke with educators who experienced Mānoa   Heritage Center during a teacher training  hosted by the Office of Hawaiian Education.

This experience is just opening my eyes.

This  area in Mānoa alone, it's made me realize that   the changes that our times has taken us through,  from almost losing an area like this and somebody   somewhere at some point in time found it important  enough to revitalize it and carry it through.

Getting to know your sense of place,  because that can help guide your work,   guide how you work with other people,  guide the criteria for the things you do.

And so, to go back to wherever you call home  and start asking those same kinds of questions,   like, what is the traditional place name of  where I'm from or where I live?

You know,   just giving yourself a small window every  day, right?

Just to kind of observe your   space, your place, right?

It's really transformative.

Mānoa Heritage Center inspires a sense of place  to those who take the opportunity to discover it,   from grounding yourself in the gardens to  strengthening your connection to Hawai‘i's   cultural roots.

This is Gavin Simon from  President William McKinley High School for   HIKI NŌ, on PBS Hawai‘i.

[ocean wave]   To close our show, here is a special profile story  from Swan Kim, a student at Punahou School who   also works as a docent at Bishop Museum.

She  interviewed another docent and learned about   how he overcame fears of public speaking to  become one of the most cherished tour guides   at the museum dedicated to Hawaiian history.

Aloha, everybody and welcome to the Bernice   Pauahi Bishop Museum.

My name is- Charles Souza is a docent at Bishop   Museum.

For the past 15 years, he's  been volunteering here twice a week.

Bishop Museum was having this program  to train docents et cetera out there.

I was working at that time, and so I decided,  well, maybe this is something good to learn,   so that I'll have something to fall  back on when I do retire out there.

It was a brave decision.

Docents give tours,  answer questions, and guide museum visitors.

It may sound fun, but to  Charles, it was frightening.

If you asked me 15 years ago if I would be able  to speak in front of a group of 10 or 15 people,   I would have told you no way.

I took several  speech courses when I was working, and I would   stand at the podium and basically shake.

Even though he was scared, Charles decided   to give this docent thing a try.

Still, his  fear lingered in his mind throughout his three   months of docent training, where he learned about  various artifacts, aspects of Hawaiian culture,   and leading tours.

All too soon it  was time for him to do it on his own.

What was my first date as a docent?

It was a  little scary.

Five minutes driving to here,   I said, “What are you doing?

You're crazy.

You're not going to want to be standing in   front of people and talking,” and I almost  turned around and went back home, something   pushed me on to say, just give it a try.

Somehow, Charles survived his first day,   then his second, and soon he began to gain  confidence in touring visitors.

He was starting   to enjoy being a docent because of his love  for the Bishop Museum and the history it holds.

But there's something about this place that  makes it comfortable to get over the fear   of talking in front of 50 to 20 people at a  time, just telling the stories and relating   the stories of the different artifacts et cetera  out there.

It just made it more comfortable.

And as a Kamehameha Schools graduate, he feels  a deep connection with Bernice Pauahi Bishop,   the founder of the Bishop Museum  and the Kamehameha Schools.

I started there in kindergarten and  went all the way through high school   out there.

As Bernice had afforded me to get  an education out there, I feel it's my duty,   my kuleana to help give back, or, you know, tell  the stories that she wanted the people to know.

Charles' breakthrough in overcoming his fear  has affected him far beyond the museum.

And one important thing that it helped me get  over was that, unfortunately, I was able to   give my father eulogy at his services out there,  where before, I wouldn't have been able to even   stand up in front of and look at all the people.

Charles plans to keep on volunteering for years   to come.

It's not just help him conquer his  lifelong phobia; he loves that his work at   Bishop Museum constantly teaches him new things,  and he encourages more people to join him.

You're not going to know everything.

You try  your best to tell people what you know.

You   keep on learning.

So, it's important so that  we can get more people on the floor to help   tell Hawai‘i's story, tell the Hawaiian story.

But if not like it says, enjoy the rest of your   day.

And as my mentor says, we don't say aloha  goodbye, but a hui hou until we meet again.

This is Swan Kim from Punahou  School for HIKI NŌ on PBS Hawai‘i.

ʻOia ihola!

That's it for our show.

Thanks  for joining us to watch the impressive work of   Hawai‘i's New Wave of Storytellers.

Don't forget  to follow HIKI NŌ on PBS Hawai‘i on YouTube,   Instagram, and TikTok.

You can find this  HIKI NŌ episode and more at pbshawaii.org.

Tune in next week for more proof that  Hawai‘i students HIKI NŌ, can do.

A hui hou i kēia pule aʻe.

[outro music]