Red dust on his jeans, a farmer with a wiry build and an impish grin ducks into his plantation cottage in Kunia to take a break from the fields in the midday heat, a luxury he was forbidden for years.
On his parlor wall hangs a gold-rimmed picture of King Chulalongkorn of Thailand, a reformer who preserved his nation’s sovereignty and abolished slavery in 1905.
The 42-year-old Thai farmer knows something about indentured servitude. Brought to the United States by a labor broker, he describes being shuttled from state to state to work long hours in the fields, seven days a week, his passport confiscated, his wages withheld, confined to dingy quarters with inadequate food and plumbing.
Today he and 11 other Thai farmers are supporting their families, tilling 5-acre plots in Kunia, certified as human trafficking victims by the U.S. Office of Refugee Resettlement and offered safe haven. They got back on their feet with help from Pacific Gateway Center, a refugee resettlement agency, and the Feed the Hunger Foundation, which makes microloans to boost food production in Hawaii.
"I feel like I’ve been reborn," Somphong said last week through an interpreter from Pacific Gateway Center, asking that only his first name be published for fear of reprisal.
Self-reliance is the common thread in their stories. The Feed the Hunger Foundation provides loans and guidance, rather than grants, to help people start their own enterprises.
Founded by Hawaii natives Denise Albano and Patti Chang, the nonprofit has made 3,000 loans across the globe, from Nepal to Liberia, with a less than 1 percent default rate.
It is reaching out to Hawaii borrowers who don’t qualify for traditional bank loans, with $1 million in capital to lend. Somphong and his fellow farmers received $7,500 loans from the foundation for startup costs two years ago, and they have faithfully repaid them, allowing the money to cycle into other ventures.
The produce that the Thai farmers have raised — including cucumbers, papayas and eggplant — is, in turn, helping low-income seniors at West Loch Elderly Village remain healthy and independent, rather than relying on the store that’s within walking distance — a 7-Eleven.
"They’ve got beautiful vegetables here, and they are cheaper than going to the market," said a delighted Judy Dela Cruz, a West Loch resident, after filling her bag with sweet potatoes and leafy greens at a biweekly farm stand held on the shady lanai of the village hall.
"We have limited income, so it really helps us," she added. "This is so convenient for us, at our age. A lot of us are in wheelchairs or walkers."
The produce, which is also sold through Nalo Farms and other outlets, signifies a tiny step toward self-reliance for Hawaii itself, which is heavily dependent on food imports and exports most of what it grows.
"The goal is really to use microfinance as a way to make changes in the local food system," said Albano, president of the foundation, which has offices in San Francisco and Honolulu. "And that is to make it more efficient to grow, produce and distribute local food, and help bring the cause of local, healthy food to all communities, to make it a more equitable system."
The foundation offers capital coupled with other support, including networking and help with business planning, financial literacy and marketing.
"We are making risky loans, there’s no doubt about it," Albano said. "There’s no collateral, there’s no startup money in some cases, and in order to reduce the risk on the loans, we put all these other things in place."
The foundation has made 38 loans in Hawaii from $2,000 to $100,000. Most of the borrowers needed some type of technical assistance, even for the application process, Chang said.
Loans have gone to a range of food entrepreneurs from aquaponic farms to restaurants, truckers and even a cookie company.
"I don’t want to jinx things, but as of right now there are no defaults in Hawaii," Albano said. "It kind of turns the traditional belief about who is creditworthy on its head."
Along with a $1 million grant from the federal government for a revolving fund, the foundation also lends out money invested by individuals, who get a 2 percent annual return plus the knowledge they are helping fellow Hawaii folks and enhancing local food production.
"You can see it work in your backyard," Albano said.
The nonprofit’s mission dovetails with that of Pacific Gateway Center, which helps refugees and the poor become self-supporting with social services and microloans. It also has a Culinary Kitchen Incubator in Kalihi with 11 state-certified kitchens and a bottling facility that can be used by local entrepreneurs.
The Thai farmers were referred by U.S. immigration officials to the Pacific Gateway Center to help them resettle here in 2010, according to Tin Myaing Thein, executive director of the center. The center obtained a lease from the Hawaii Agricultural Foundation for 60 acres of former pineapple land that it subleased with guidance from the University of Hawaii College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources.
The farmers started by planting cucumbers, because they grow fast and could generate quick cash to help feed their families, then branched out into a wide range of crops.
"What was just arid, dry land is now just flowering," Albano said. "They don’t let any inch go unused. They are all growing all different types of vegetables. The farmers work really hard to make a living."
Before coming to the United States, Somphong had traveled as a seasonal farmworker as far as Israel and Taiwan on temporary visas to supplement the income from his family’s rice paddy in northeast Thailand. It wasn’t until he signed up with Global Horizons Inc., a Beverly Hills, Calif.-based labor contractor, that he faced exploitation, he said.
He crisscrossed the country, picking apples in Utah, mushrooms in Pennsylvania, oranges in Florida and macadamia nuts in Hawaii, before authorities were tipped off and federal investigators took on the case.
In March, a federal judge in Los Angeles held Global Horizons liable for mistreating and discriminating against hundreds of Thai workers in the United States, in a civil suit filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. That decision paves the way for a monetary settlement.
Somphong was allowed to bring his wife and daughter here. The couple still rises early every day to tend their crops, but they set their own hours now — and can take a break in the middle of the day.
"I’m happy," he said simply. "It’s freedom."
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To apply for a loan or learn more, visit www.feed-hunger.com or email denisealbano@feed-hunger.com.
