🏘️IMSPARK: Affordable Housing Feeds, Builds, and Heals🏘️

  🏘️ Imagine... Housing Growing, Connecting, and Resilient 🏘️

💡 Imagined Endstate:

A Hawaiʻi where public and affordable housing communities are supported with well-designed, well-governed community gardens that strengthen food access, improve health, foster connection, and build everyday resilience, especially during crises.

📚 Source:

Raj, S., Fine, J.. (2025). Public housing community garden evaluation: Food Security-Scaping for affordable housing. University of Hawaii. Link.

💥 What’s the Big Deal:

In 2020, during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Honolulu installed 160 garden beds across seven affordable housing sites as part of its climate resilience and food security strategy 🌱. Four years later, this evaluation shows a powerful truth: community gardens are less about yield and more about people .

While food production varied across sites, residents consistently reported that the most meaningful benefit was social connection, meeting neighbors, sharing knowledge, and feeling a sense of purpose 🧑🏽‍🤝‍🧑🏽. For kūpuna and long-term residents, gardens became spaces of routine, care, and belonging. For others, especially working families and transitional residents, participation was harder due to time, safety concerns, and design barriers ⏳.

The findings also reveal why infrastructure alone is not enough:

• 🔹 Without clear governance, gardens lose momentum 📋
• 🔹 High resident turnover erodes knowledge and stewardship 🔄
• 🔹 Poor design (low beds, no shade, theft exposure) discourages use 🚫
• 🔹 Limited training leaves new residents disconnected from the resource 🤝

Yet even with modest harvests, residents reported healthier diets, more physical activity, reduced stress, and stronger social ties🧠. In island communities where food is imported, housing density is high, and disasters can disrupt supply chains overnight, these gardens function as quiet but critical public health infrastructure.

The evaluation’s readiness framework makes clear: when gardens are treated as shared community assets, supported by governance, education, and social programming, they become spaces of dignity, healing, and resilience rather than abandoned plots. This evaluation reminds us that community gardens are not a silver bullet for food insecurity 🛡️, but they are a powerful platform for connection, health, and resilience. In Hawaiʻi and across the Pacific, where crises arrive fast and resources are fragile, investing in shared spaces that grow trust and belonging may matter just as much as growing food. Imagine public housing where the garden is not an afterthought, but a living part of care, culture, and community, rooted in ʻāina and sustained by people.

#FoodSecurity, #Scaping, #CommunityGardens, #PublicHousing, #MālamaĀina, #HealthEquity, #ClimateResilience, #IslandWellbeing,#IMSPARK,

🥬IMSPARK: Imagine Health Care That Feeds All 🥬

🥬 Imagine… Healing With Food, Health, and Community🥬

💡 Imagined Endstate:

A Hawaiʻi where healthcare and food systems work together — where Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs) routinely connect patients to fresh, locally grown food, strengthen local farms, and rebuild food sovereignty so communities are healthier, more resilient, and better prepared for disasters.

📚 Source:

Domingo, J., Gomes, D., & Hirayama, S. K. (2025). Harvesting insights: Surveying produce access through Hawaiʻi’s FQHCs. Hawaiʻi Primary Care Association. link.

💥 What’s the Big Deal:

Hawaiʻi imports nearly 90% of its food, leaving the state with just 5–7 days of food reserves in the event of supply chain disruptions 📦. This is not just an economic vulnerability, it is a public health risk shaped by historical land-use changes and the erosion of traditional food systems 🌱.

The Harvesting Insights report shows how FQHCs are emerging as critical food security infrastructure 🏥. Across Hawaiʻi, health centers are piloting and sustaining produce programs, including vouchers, direct distribution, and food-as-medicine prescriptions, reaching hundreds of patients while improving chronic disease outcomes and overall wellbeing 🤝.

At the same time, the findings highlight uneven capacity:

🔹 Not all FQHCs currently operate produce programs 🕳️

🔹 Many initiatives rely on short-term or pilot funding ⏳

🔹 Staffing, reimbursement pathways, and long-term sustainability remain challenges 🧩

Yet the model is powerful. By linking healthcare, local agriculture, and community wellness, these programs strengthen food sovereignty, economic resilience, and disaster preparedness all at once🛡️. In a state increasingly exposed to climate shocks and shipping disruptions, food-as-medicine is not an add-on, it is essential infrastructure.

Harvesting Insights makes clear that Hawaiʻi already holds the blueprint for a healthier and more self-reliant future🌺. By scaling produce access through FQHCs, supporting local farmers, and treating food security as healthcare, Hawaiʻi can reduce chronic disease, strengthen community ties, and build resilience before the next crisis arrives. Imagine a system where healing the people also heals the land, and where food is recognized as foundational to health, dignity, and survival in island communities.

#FoodAsMedicine, #Hawaii, #FoodSecurity, #MālamaĀina, #CommunityHealth, #FQHC, #HealthEquity, #ResilientIslands,#CommunityEmpowerment, #IMSPARK,