Leslie Harper, manager of the BYU–Hawaii Sustainability Center, said the extra work force he received because of the COVID-19 pandemic helped the center expand. According to Harper, they have harvested more than 2,000 pounds of vegetables every month and have over 200 chickens.
Additionally, Harper said the center’s honey production increased by 50 percent, the Give & Take has been better organized and beautified, and they are starting a training program aimed to help students become self-sustaining.
Harper, a sophomore from Canada majoring in business management supply chain, said he usually has 20 student employees which, according to him, was barely enough to maintain the center. However, since the Polynesian Culture Center closed, he was able to hire 50 more student employees, which he said made a big difference.
After the pandemic begin, Harper said, “The PCC held their student employees for a short period of time and couldn’t do it anymore, so students were invited to work for BYUH. I see it as a great opportunity to expand our center.”
“I had so many students. I couldn’t manage them all, but I taught them the grand vision, and they took charge and did great work on their own.”
Temple View Learning Garden
Akane Sasaki, a junior from Japan majoring in elementary education and a lead of the garden team, said, “When I started to work in May, most of our garden boxes were empty and the few plants we had were dying. But now, our garden boxes are all so green and full of growing plants.
“People who used to come before the pandemic were surprised when they came back,” Sasaki said. They planted watermelon, taro, tomato, ginger, white turmeric, basil, rosemary, sweet potato, pumpkin, dragon fruit, Chinese cabbage, green pepper, lettuce, okra, chives, onions, green onions, aloe and more.
Harper said they have a banana farm that produces each month between 1,000 and 1,500 pounds of bananas. He also shared they planted hundreds of fruit trees in an acre and a half field that required care in the beginning, but will eventually be a food forest that does not require any care from humans.
“We planted citrus, papaya, mango, breadfruit, avocado, mangosteen and guava. We will extend the food forest with more trees later. We also built swells to capture rainwater for our farm,” Harper said.
The center, he explained, has 78 garden boxes people can use and learn about gardening. Harper and Sasaki invited and encouraged the BYUH ohana to come and learn how to garden. “Working in a garden is edifying and rewarding. If you learn to grow your own food wherever you go your knowledge and experience will be with you and you can be more self-sustaining,” Harper commented.
Chickens
Mandukhai Mendsaikhan, a sophomore from Mongolia majoring in English and a chicken team lead, said they used to have 40 chickens. Now, she said, they have more than 200. “Instead of giving away our eggs, we started to incubate them and hatch them. Every 21 days we hatch 30-to-42 eggs,” she explained.
Harper shared they used to have a pen for the chickens, which couldn’t protect the chickens from sun, rain and animals. “Mongoose and dogs constantly attacked and killed our chickens. Their cages were smelly all the time, but now our chickens have much better living conditions,” he shared.
Over the summer, Harper said, they built three chicken houses, each 1,000 square feet, that are well ventilated and shelter the chickens from rain and sun.
Mendsaikhan explained, “Since the PCC was closed, we were struggling to find food for our chickens. We asked students and faculty to donate their food waste and put buckets around the hales, TVA, Pounders Restaurant and collect them back.” Recently, they started to work with BYUH Food Services, and use their waste to feed the chickens, Mendsaikhan said.
Still, Harper invited people to continue donating because their chickens are multiplying fast. He explained they are planning to raise other animals if they have enough food supply.
“Chickens are natural pest control. They eat all of the backyard bugs, critters, spiders, slugs, mice and so on,” Mendsaikhan said. “They also fertilize our garden soil with their feces.”
Give & Take
During the summer, the Give & Take was transformed and started to “almost look like a real retail store,” Harper said. “It was just operating, but now it is beautiful and organized.”
Harper said the Give & Take received so many donations during the Spring 2020 Semester, the facility couldn’t contain it all. So, he said they stored the surplus in a shipping container. With the Nov. 25 announcement inviting all students back to campus, he said, “When they come back, we will be ready to help them.”
Onon Dalaikhuu, a sophomore from Mongolia majoring in communications and a Give & Take team member, said, at the beginning, Give & Take was just an idea from one student. However, since its establishment, she said it has blessed students, faculty and community members.
Kiaran Loefke, a Fall 2020 graduate from California who majored in hospitality and tourism management and a member of the Give & Take team, said the pandemic allowed them to focus on cleaning from the ground up, from painting the floors to sorting baby clothes by size.
Dalaikhuu said students are usually busy, so in order to save them time and help them find the things they need, the Give &Take team worked hard to organize it. “Before, the Give & Take was so messy and dirty, but now it is much better organized and clean. We also painted everything, including walls, floors, shelves, fences and drew nice drawings,” she said.
Loefke said some people wanted to come and simply look at the Christmas section. Some, she said, even chose to sit and read on their work breaks, enjoying the environment they created.
Dalaikhuu said their next goal is to build walls to protect the items from rain. “When it rains, some of the good things, such as books, notebooks and other school supplies become useless.”
Bees and honey
Harper said honey production has increased by 50 percent and they moved their beehives to a better location. “Bees were at the front of the farm, but we moved it to the back, which has less distraction,” he said. “Since our garden has more plants now, bees have more nectar, and they pollinate our plants.”
Emma Lance-Li, a senior from Georgia majoring in peacebuilding and a beekeeper at the center, said they captured two beehives from the temple and the Polynesian Cultural Center and brought them to their apiary. “People reported they found beehives around their houses, so we are planning to capture and bring them as well.”
Harper said before the pandemic he did not have enough employees to assign to the bees. “Since Emma started to constantly care for the bees, they are doing much better.”
“There was no one to take care of the bees,” Lance-Li explained. “Only one girl came once in a couple months and checked them. I asked her to teach me, and I became the beekeeper. Bees are very interesting, and I love my job.”
Training program
The center plans to start a training program in January 2021 to train their employees and students who are interested. Harper said the training will have five modules, including animal husbandry, horticulture, technicals, aquaponics and hydroponics, and Give & Take.
Harper shared the horticulture module will include photosynthesis, plant nutrition, water quality, genetics, pest control, pollination, suitability and maintenance.
Animal husbandry includes raising and maintaining animals such as bees and chickens, he explained.
The technical module, Harper said, consists of carpentry, welding, mechanics, bike shop, power tools, nuts and bolts, fuel, combustion, cutting steel and wood, saws and drills.
The Give & Take module will be about retail sales and supply chain. Harper said professors at BYUH have been invited to teach some of the sections.
“Since we are producing a lot of food, we are going to teach about food preservation as well.” He invited people to donate glass jars.
Other projects
The hydroponic and aquaponic projects were just a corner of the center, but now have expanded and have their own house, Harper said. It has more fish tanks for the fish, and more variety of plants were planted, he added.
Harper shared their next project is a cornfield. They are planning to plant corn in a 2,000-square-foot field and will expand it later on.
Since March 2020, the Sustainability Center has baked and given away 50 loaves of bread every Sunday and continues doing it, Harper explained.
Dermont Christensen, a volunteer of the center from Seattle, said his four children graduated from BYUH so he wanted to give back by volunteering. He said he was an engineer for Boeing before he retired.
“I served my mission in Hawaii in 1970, and when I retired, I wanted to do something productive,” Christensen shared. “I love volunteering for the Sustainability Center. It is very fulfilling and rewarding.”