Waimea’s Kohala Center Awarded $90,000 EPA Grant

The Kohala Center in Waimea on the Big Island is receiving a $90,000 environmental protection grant that it applied for in 2017, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced today, Tuesday, Jan. 9, 2018.

The Kohala Center’s “Farm to Forest” project is using school gardens at middle schools to promote environmental literacy on Hawai‘i Island.

The project is promoting environmental stewardship and encouraging citizen engagement on the Big Island with an educational model that can be replicated statewide.

Over two years, garden programs at four middle schools—involving 16 teachers and 400 students—will include field trips, hands-on science labs, and environmental monitoring.

The Energy Coalition in Richmond, California, and the Sierra Streams Institute in Nevada City, California, received $91,000 each.

Up to $3 million in grant funding is available for locally focused environmental education projects under the 2018 EE Local Grant Program.

The EPA will award up to 35 grants nationwide, each between $50,000 and $100,000.

The 2018 EE Local Grant Program includes support for projects that reflect the intersection of environmental issues with agricultural best practices, conservation of natural resources, food waste management, and natural disaster preparedness. Funded projects will increase public awareness of those topics and help participants make informed decisions.

“By recognizing these locally-based learning and awareness opportunities, the Environmental Protection Agency is taking both a local and national leadership role in promoting sound agricultural conservation practices, environmental disaster preparedness, adequate food waste management and other important environmental best practices,” said EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt. “Environmental education starts locally in our own backyards, classrooms and in the fields of farmers who work the land directly, and I’m proud to play a role in enhancing such learning opportunities.”

Through this grant program, EPA will provide financial support for projects that design, demonstrate, and/or disseminate environmental education practices, methods, or techniques that will increase environmental and conservation literacy and encourage behavior that will benefit the environment in the local communities in which projects are located.

Since 1992, EPA has distributed between $2 and $3.5 million in grant funding per year under this program, supporting more than 3,700 grants.

In 2017, EPA’s environmental education grant awards included the following projects:

Proposals for 2018 grants are due by Thursday, March 15, 2018. The full solicitation notices will be posted later this week.

Find background on the EE Grants Program and resources for applicants here.