WAIMEA, KAUAʻI – MAY 2, 2022 – New Communities, Jubilee Justice, and Decolonizing Wealth Project (DWP) recently  announced that Kumano I Ke Ala in Waimea, Kauaʻi is one of 32 grantees nationwide to receive funding through  the Food & Land Justice Fund, a new $1 million partnership and funding initiative to support Black, Indigenous and people of color (BIPOC)-led organizations leading food and land justice and sovereignty efforts across the country.

The Food & Land Justice Fund comes as Black farmers fight to reclaim land ownerships that have declined by over 16 million acres in the last century and as Native farmers fight to reclaim their ancestral foodways. Kumano I Ke Ala is aligned with these these efforts by working to revitalize a once thriving food system in West Kauaʻi that is centered on traditional Hawaiian food crops. Just as in Hawaiʻi, additional grantee partners are working to build local power through community organizing to protect the loss of additional land and sacred places, and freshwater resources while building infrastructure that will provide for sustainable communities for generations to come. 

Final grant award decisions were made by the Fund’s Advisory Committee, which includes Shirley Sherrod, Executive Director of the Southwest Georgia Project for Community Education, Inc, and Co-Founder of New Communities, Inc., and member of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Equity Commission; and Konda Mason, Founder and President of Jubilee Justice, based in Louisiana. The donation was seeded by Bia-Echo Foundation in the name of Jubilee Justice and New Communities, with the intention of expanding funding for BIPOC farmers. 

Kumano I Ke Ala is a non-profit organization based in Waimea, Kauaʻi that is focused on growing a new generation of Aloha ʻĀina leaders to mālama our resources and achieve sustainability in West Kauaʻi and throughout Hawaiʻi. Kumano I Ke Alaʻs work is closely aligned with the network of organizations supported by the Decolonizing Wealth project as we aim to empower Native Hawaiian leadership and stewardship of our ʻāina and wai resources. 

“We are very excited to be included in this group of change-makers that are working towards a common goal of empowering historically marginalized communities of farmers and look forward to working in alignment with them to strengthen our efforts to revitalize our ʻāina, community, and food systems,” said Kaina Makua, Executive Director of Kumano I Ke Ala. 

“In order to accurately address the racial wealth gap in the United States, we must first acknowledge the injustices of our food and agriculture industry,” said Edgar Villanueva, Founder and Principal of Decolonizing Wealth Project and Liberated Capital. “We’re thrilled to join our two partner organizations and grantees in growing the movement to reclaim land and food systems in an effort to create a more equitable and sustainable future for all.”

“This partnership that Kumano I Ke Ala has been extended is a great example of how the growing movement for Native Hawaiian leadership and agency over resources that is happening in Hawaiʻi is closely aligned to similar efforts in African-American and Indigenous communities across America. This is the work that Āina Aloha Economic Futures envisioned when it was launched and we expect much more to come in the near future,” said Noe-Noe Wong Wilson, Co-Founder, ʻĀina Aloha Economic Futures Initiative. 

“It is an honor to work alongside leaders like Konda Mason and Edgar Villanueva to spearhead such a meaningful and impactful partnership,” said Sherrod. “This fund will become an invaluable tool and a template for funders, supporters and advocates as we build a nationwide network of sustainable land-based communities and address the injustices in this country’s food and agriculture system. 

“Joining forces with Shirley Sherrod, Decolonizing Wealth and Bia-Echo Foundation to fund BIPOC food and agriculture organizations who have historically had little-to-no access to funding has been an incredible honor,” said Mason.

The first round of Food and Land Justice Fund grantee partners were announced in December 2021. The second round was announced in April.  

Local Media Contact:
Davis Price
808-954-5569

List of Grantees:

ROUND ONE (December 2021): 

• Farms to Grow, Inc – Oakland, CA 
• Black Food Fund – Portland, OR 
• Drinking Gourd Farms – Phoenix, AZ 
• Reuben V Anderson Center for Justice – Tougaloo, MS
• East Baker Historical Society – Newton, GA 
• Dianne’s Call – Columbia, SC 
• Growing Augusta: Arts, Agriculture, & Agency – Hephzibah, GA 
• Marshview Community Organic Farm, Inc. – St. Helena Island, SC
• Come Up Project’s Gangstas to Growers – Atlanta, GA 
• The Ramapough Culture and Land Foundation – Newton, NJ
• Acres of Ancestry Initiative/Black Agrarian Fund – Washington, D.C.
• Southside Action Pact – South Ozone Park, NY
• Rustic Roots Sanctuary Co – St. Louis, MO 
• Lugenia Burns Hope Center – Chicago, IL 
• I-Collective – Appleton, WI
• Soul Food Project – Indianapolis, IN 

ROUND TWO (April 2022):

• Burundians Iowans Association, Inc. – Des Moines, IA 
• Medicine Bowl – Green Mountain, NC
• Tierra Negra Farm at Earthseed Land Collective  – Durham, NC
• Pick 42 Foundation – Mullins, SC
• Fresh Future Farm – Charleston, SC
• The Local Farm Cooperative – Selma, AL
• Ohelaku – De Pere, WI 
• Black Oaks Center – Chicago, IL
• Solidarity Economy STL – St. Louis, MO
• Lakota Youth Development – Herrick, SD
• Jones Gardens – Staunton, VA
• Flower Hill institute – Jemez Pueblo, NM
• Detroit Black Farmer Land Fund – Detroit, MI
• Kumano | Ke Ala – Waimea, HI
• Fresh Rx Oklahoma – Tulsa, OK 
• Anishinaabe Agriculture Institute – Callaway, MN 

For more information about the Food & Land Justice Fund, visit: https://decolonizingwealth.com/liberated-capital/foodandland/ 

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