FL MORRIS / FMORRIS@STARBULLETIN.COM
Waikiki Elementary School students, aided by the Fruit Tree Planting Foundation, planted trees on campus yesterday as they learned about healthy diets and a healthy planet. Brayden Kubota, left, and other students filled in dirt around a tree held by state Arborist Jackie Lee Ralya.
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It’s easy being green
Grants bring orchards of "exotic" fruit trees to two Oahu schools
Families once had fruit trees in their back yards, and children knew the taste of guava and mountain apples because there was always so much to share, said Aimee Kumura, vice principal at Waialua Elementary School.
But that's not the case these days.
"Nowadays, kids have never even seen or tasted such (supposedly) 'exotic' fruits as guava or mountain apple," she said.
Waialua and Waikiki elementary school students could soon find those fruits are not so exotic.
Waialua and Waikiki applied for grants through which they received two orchards' worth of trees from the international Fruit Tree Planting Foundation. Kids at both schools got to help plant the last tree and take part in its "Fruit Tree 101" educational program at separate ceremonies yesterday.
Waialua on the North Shore received 36 trees, and Waikiki got 60. Trees ranged from the simple orange to the more intriguing peanut butter fruit, kumquat and jaboticaba. There was even a "miracle (berry) fruit tree, which is like a grape" and whose sweet flavor lasts in your mouth for half an hour after you eat it, Kumura said.
Parents and community volunteers helped Fruit Tree Planting Foundation representatives plant the trees over the weekend with assistance from Jackie Lee Ralya, an arborist with the state Department of Land and Natural Resources.
FL MORRIS / FMORRIS@STARBULLETIN.COM
Jackie Lee Ralya, with the Department of Land and Natural Resources, explained planting techniques yesterday to Waikiki Elementary students as Fruit Tree Planting Foundation Director Cem Akin, right, handed out trowels. The school received 60 trees to plant on campus.
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Averaging about 2 feet tall, the trees will bear fruit in one or two years, and have already been adopted by some of the families who helped put them in the ground, Ralya said.
At Waikiki Elementary about 40 kids from Arnold Latti's fourth-grade homeroom were encouraged to "eat the rainbow" (in fruits of different colors) for the best nutrition. Allison Napoleon said she learned that "trees preserve oxygen and collect pollution" and that corn is actually a fruit.
Zachary Nattero's knack with a shovel came from helping his mother plant "a bunch of trees in our back yard," he said. "I actually tried to plant an orange tree with a seed, but it didn't work." Zachary enjoyed the day's activities because "it helps the environment," he said. "The trees help us breathe. So helping the trees actually is helping us."
Besides all the hands-on horticultural and nutritional lessons that can come from having an orchard on campus, "think of all the things they can do with fruit," Ralya said. Students can use the harvest for fundraisers, learn economics and math, and draw the trees and fruit in art class, she suggested.
Foundation Director Cem Akin said each grant was worth between $5,000 and $10,000, depending on the number of trees. Getting a grant, from the application process to actual tree planting, can be as quick as two months, he said.
It is all sponsored by the FruitaBu Organic Smoooshed Fruit, a snack company strong on environmental advocacy. For more information, visit www.fruitabu.com.
