Webinar #2
Food Security
Webinar #2
Food Security
Contextualizing food sovereignty and disaster response, equipping participants with tools and skills to independently prepare and access food amidst crisis.
Participants will:
- Participants will define the relationship between food security and disaster response among Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders.
- Participants will define the importance of kūpuna crops in building food security.
- Participants will identify food-based tools and skills to apply to clinical signs and symptoms of serious mental illness and substance misuse.
Guest Speakers Spotlight

Kaʻiana Runnels
Kaʻiana Runnels is a mahiʻai from the mokupuni of Moku o Keawe, in the moku of Hilo, and the ahupuaʻa of Kīhālani. His passion is to collect, identify, document, cultivate, preserve, and spread the mea kanu of his kūpuna. His specific focus is on kalo, ʻawa, maiʻa, and kō. His ʻike stems from a variety of kūpuna and hoa. He first and foremost recognizes all those kūpuna who gave freely of their time and priceless naʻauao. Along with his kuleana to these mea kanu Hawaiʻi, he works full time as the Mahiʻāina Supervisor for The Kohala Center. He helps to educate ʻohana about food cultivation and the importance of ʻai pono in our everyday lives.
Mark “Gooch” Noguchi
Mark “Gooch” Noguchi cooks from an ‘āina-based perspective, connecting food to its source to build community. An approach he learned from hula Halau o Kekuhi, it’s defined his innovative restaurant offerings like Heʻeia Kea Pier, MISSION Social Hall & Cafe, and his current Pili Group, a non-traditional food concept interweaving community, education and food. A graduate of the Culinary Institute of America, 2019 Omidyar Fellow, Mark is now a Food & Sustainability Curriculum Specialist at Punahou School.

Wayne Tanaka
Wayne Chung Tanaka is the Executive Director of the Sierra Club of Hawaiʻi. He has authored and co-authored book chapters and essays on konohiki fishing rights, Papahānaumokuākea, nearshore fisheries management, indigenous food sovereignty, and the intersection of race and politics in Hawaiʻi, among other topics. Wayne received his law degree from the University of Hawaiʻi’s William S. Richardson School of Law and a B.S. in Engineering from Harvey Mudd College. Wayne served for just under a decade in the Public Policy Program at the Office of Hawaiian Affairs.

Our Training Kits
Continuing Education Credits (CEUs) are available for this webinar. For more information, please email uludrs@hawaii.edu. Please complete this survey to receive your CEUs:
Indigenous Framework Review (Version 1.1)
The Māpuna Lab
Department of Social Work
Thompson School of Social Work & Public Health
University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa