The Hawaiian Acres Community Center is strategically located on the corner of Moho Road and Po‘ola Road, locally known as 8 and C respectively. Moho is a paved county emergency access road that many in the community (including commuters) use as an alternate route to access Ainaloa, Highway 130, Orchidland, and Hawaiian Paradise Park.
For years, the center hosted a weekly farmer’s market (one of the few on this island with a compliant Special Use Permit) until the demise of its catchment in 2022. Almost six months later, the community center suffered extensive fire damage and was later demolished in May of that year. We are now on track to rebuild the community center along with a certified shared-use kitchen.
moho kitchen
The proposed ADA-compliant facility will provide certified cooking space, packaging and labeling equipment, and a value-added processing area for activities such as canning, preserving, and preparing grab-n-go meals. A classroom will provide space for workshops covering topics such as general excise tax licensing, food handling and processing, nutrition, and culinary arts.
This new certified kitchen will support Puna’s diverse food producers and entrepreneurs—which include farmers, ranchers, aquaculturists, and food truck vendors—to start, sustain, or expand their local businesses through high quality training and strong community support.
All in all, our aim is to nurture a sense of community and belonging within our disparate residents, create a microsource of healthy and local foods, promote community inclusiveness, while supporting our local economy.
Moho Kitchen Committee
abraham antonio
Hawaiian Acres Volunteer Fire Department, Chief
Linda Brush
joined the HACA board last year to help get the community center rebuilt and to improve community relations. She sold kombucha, plants, and produce weekly at the HA farmers market. She seeks out plants that thrive in this area and promotes their propagation. As a producer of many value added products, she is also a stakeholder in the creation of a commercial kitchen in Hawaiian Acres.
Myrna Chiu
has been visiting Hawaiian Acres since 2004, and is now a seven-year resident and new landowner. She is a graphic artist and prepress specialist in marketing and publishing. She was a contributing writer and production manager at Wired, where she helped launch the magazine’s various tablet editions, and is currently production designer for AFAR magazine’s print edition. She holds an AAS in Architectural, Engineering and CADD Technologies from Honolulu Community College.
Joanna Haberman
Joanna is a Certified Holistic Health Coach, trained by the Institute for Integrative Nutrition in New York City. Her study and practice focuses on healthy food from farm to plate. She taught at and managed Wild Thyme Cooking School (now La Bonne Vie) in Lexington, KY, and has held management positions in both the cafe and catering industries. Her keen passion for supporting community food producers led her to join this project. She has spent the past 25 years writing about and working with communities and leaders to promote agricultural support initiatives in several states, including Kentucky, Tennessee, and North Carolina.
Sandy Margriter
has been a land owner and resident of Hawaiian Acres for more than three decades. She retired as a Geographic Information System (GIS) Specialist from the National Park Service in 2022. She currently co-owns and manages Mahina Acres, a small hobby farm with tropical fruit trees and heritage breed chickens. She wholeheartedly believes that growing and sharing food forges a stronger, more resilient community. When the opportunity arose for a grant to build a certified shared-use kitchen in Hawaiian Acres, she jumped at the chance to help apply for it. A growing frustration over the lack of progress on the community center rebuild led her to join the board of the Hawaiian Acres Community Association last May. She is currently running for Vice President of HACA and will appreciate your support.
Riaan Matheus
moved to the Big Island about 20 years ago from South Africa. He has lived 7 years on the Westside of the Island, 3 years in Hilo, and 10 years in Hawaiian Acres. He and his wife, Lisa, and have been operating a B&B on Moho Road for the past 10 years. He has the equivalent of a Bachelors Degree in Construction Management and has been a Handyman for the past 13 years. He is the Project Manager for the construction of the Moho Commercial Kitchen and will be devoting most of his time to this project.
Shannon Matson
Bio Coming Soon….
Patti Pinto (Fiscal Sponsor)
Prior to joining the County, Patti served on the Puna Community Development Plan Action Committee, and the Mayor’s Puna Roads Connectivity Committee. Additionally, she held the position of Hawaii County CERT coordinator until two years ago; she remains an active member of her local Community Emergency Response Team. She has lived in Upper Puna for seventeen years and has served on her Community Association Board for fifteen years. She is also part of the County of Hawai‘i Kilauea Recovery Team working on several projects to help Puna residents who were impacted by the 2018 Kilauea eruption. In her role as coordinator of the Kilauea Recovery Grant program, she has overseen the distribution of nearly seven million dollars across thirty-four grantees. She strongly believes that we can work together to grow the strength and resilience of our subdivision communities, build networks, create resources, and amplify the voices of those who call Puna home.
Michelle Richter
Michelle lived and worked in indigenous rural communities in Alaska and New Zealand before relocating to Hawaii in 2006, and has been a resident of Hawaiian Acres since 2007. She has helped people struggling with homelessness, substance abuse, mental health and disabilities for over a decade, and has also been a therapeutic foster parent for Hawaii Behavioral Health. In 2015, Michelle and her partner created Any Kine Wontons with Big Island-inspired fillings, which for years were sold at the Hawaiian Acres farmers market.
Alex Shade
A Hawaiian Acres resident for 10 years, Alex has served on the Association Board for almost nine of them, serving in the past as Vice President, and now as Secretary. She has managed or co-managed our Hawaiian Acres farmers market for many years and now serves on the HA farmers market committee. Her duties include(d) managing rental of the building and assisting in the creation of a yearly newsletter. She also manages and updates event schedules. She regularly interacts with community members and keeps them informed, promoting the benefits of being a paid member; and provides outreach, while partnering with community groups and county officials to get new events and classes at the Hawaiian Acres Community Center.