Grow Some Good Executive Director Kathy Becklin says a student, upon trying a cherry tomato, called it a piece of heaven.

Grow Some Good helps staff schools with garden coordinators and provides hands-on, outdoor learning experiences to connect students to their food sources. Through community partnerships in agriculture, science, food education and nutrition, Grow Some Good brings gardens — and those little pieces of heaven — to hundreds of children on island.

“We see the joy in kids every day,” Becklin, of Kihei, says. “It is wonderful to engage the keiki in an outdoor classroom.”

Grow Some Good began over a decade ago. Becklin, a software engineer and leader from Silicon Valley, moved to Maui. She started as a real estate broker and soon launched the nonprofit.

“When I moved to Maui in 2006, it really struck me how little of our food was grown here,” she says. “Here we are in a beautiful place where food can grow year-round, and we still import nearly 90% of the food. I joined South Maui Sustainability, and our best meetings were the gardening ones.” South Maui Sustainability worked to build sustainable practices and awareness in the region. “A second grade teacher asked if we could help build some garden beds. We did and it just grew from there.”

Today they partner with 35 schools from Hana to Lahaina and numerous organizations, chefs, and restaurants. Chef Paris Nabavi held dinners, donating all proceeds to the nonprofit, and he continues to give through his foundation. Chefs such as John Cadman of the Maui Breadfruit Co., Craig Dryhurst from the Four Seasons, the chefs of Fork and Salad, and Kevin Laut from Outrigger Pizza are also longtime supporters. They’ve guided students in how to prepare a variety of foods, with Cadman recently teaching students at Lokelai Intermediate School the different flavors of breadfruit and how to cook ulu.

“Kathy has a lot of passion for the work with keiki, aina, agriculture and sustainability,” says Alexis Kageyama of Kihei, an outdoor environmental educator and school garden coordinator with Grow Some Good.

It was Becklin’s Minnesotan grandfather who taught her gardening when she was in fifth grade, the year her family lived there while her father was stationed in Vietnam. Later in her adulthood she studied landscape design and, by age 45, began gardening again.

Former staffer Malia Bohlin, now a development director with Maui Behavioral Health, notes how many roles Becklin plays as executive director, beyond her passion for the mission. Becklin negotiates with schools, manages a part-time staff of eight, juggles the schedules of six garden coordinators working across 10 schools, raises funds, writes proposals, manages the budget and supports a board of directors.

“It’s a lot,” Bohlin says, “and she manages to do it graciously.”

“When I was working with the kids and realized how disconnected kids were from real food, I knew this was so important,” Becklin says. “They knew what store food came from but had no idea that it grows from the soil.”

But things are changing.

“This year Maui High had to add staff to support the 300 kids enrolled in natural resources and agriculture classes — a 63% increase over last year,” Becklin says.

The Maui High instructor told Grow Some Good most of the students were from Kihei, where students had garden learning for eight years — and where Becklin and so many began to bring the community a taste and a piece of heaven.

N.T. Arévalo is a storyteller and strategist who offers stories of pono across our land. Share your pono story and learn more at storystudiowriters.com.