Black Gold Project

Why It Matters

Black Gold responds to concerns about soil health shaped by generations of intensive agriculture, alongside the continuing challenges of high food costs, reliance on imported food, and organic waste entering the landfill. Black Gold works on all of it at once — at the household level, where change is realistic and lasting: less waste, healthier soil, more fresh food, and a renewed relationship to the land.

How It Works

Black Gold grows through a simple, supported cycle: waste → compost → living soil → food → health → community → stewardship. In practice:

• Get set up

  Participating households receive a compost bin starter and hands-on training in composting food scraps, managing moisture, and troubleshooting.

• Get coached

  Regular check-ins keep it going, solving problems and sustaining momentum through relationships and accountability.

• Grow

  Finished compost is used to grow priority foods like avocado, mango, sweet potato, and greens, with guidance and youth stewardship roles.

• Harvest & share

  Households share harvests, plant starts, and lessons, and celebrate what the community grew together.

• Regenerate

  Over time, the vision grows toward compost co-ops, seedling exchanges, and reinvesting in youth education.

From Scraps to Growth

Rooted in Culture and ʻĀina

For many keiki, food is only ever a packaged product from a store. Black Gold restores the understanding of food as a living process—teaching where food really comes from, building respect for land and labor, and reconnecting community to the cultural value of kuleana (responsibility) and stewardship of ʻāina. Working with soil offers a grounding way to reconnect with ʻāina and practice mālama ʻāina—caring for the land that feeds and sustains us. When keiki help feed the soil and grow food, that living relationship helps them understand how the ʻāina provides for us—and the kuleana we carry to care for it in return.

Where It Came From

The Black Gold Project grew out of R.I.C.E., CH³'s first program, which wove together healing movement and food-and-land work. As the food-and-ʻāina side grew, it became the Black Gold Project. (R.I.C.E. is part of CH³'s origin story, not a current program.)

Informed by Advisor Expertise

Black Gold is informed by CH³ advisor D.S. "Dee" Epperson, whose experience includes composting, soil biology, and regenerative systems.

What Grows From It

Grow & Give

Grow & Give extends the Black Gold cycle by sharing plants and starts grown or propagated through the project with community members who can care for them at home.

As plants become ready, available gifts may include:

• Fruit and food plants: mango, avocado, guava, papaya, and cacao.
• Cultural and landscape plants: ti plants, bromeliads, snake-plant varieties, and plumeria.

Availability changes as plants mature. Community members can contact CH³ to ask what is currently available. CH³ also hopes to follow each plant’s journey—where it is planted, how it grows, what the family learns, and, when applicable, what it produces.

Ask About Available Plants

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