Mahalo nui loa to more than 250 friends of Grow Some Good who attended our school gardens benefit last Saturday at Hotel Wailea. We are thrilled at the incredibly warm reception received from the community and excited to grow some more good in the neighborhood!

World-class chefs prepare amazing cuisine from school garden ingredients at "Maui Chefs Grow Some Good - A Sunset Taste of School Gardens" March 2, 2013. Left to right: Chefs Brian Etheredge (Capische? & Il Teatro), Dan Fiske (Private Maui Chef), Peleg Miron (Spago), Christopher Kulis (Capische? & Il Teatro), Kristen Etheredge (Private Maui Chef), Samuel Faggetti (Four Seasons Resort Maui), Nicholas Porreca (Ferraro's Bar e Ristorante), and Eric Mitchell (The Outrigger Pizza Company)

Left to right: Chefs Brian Etheredge (Capische? & Il Teatro), Dan Fiske (Private Maui Chef), Peleg Miron (Spago), Christopher Kulis (Capische? & Il Teatro), Kristen Etheredge (Private Maui Chef), Samuel Faggetti (Four Seasons Resort Maui), Nicholas Porreca (Ferraro’s Bar e Ristorante), and Eric Mitchell (The Outrigger Pizza Company)

The benefit was our first annual event and raised more than $18,000 to assist school gardens serving nearly 2,000 students on Maui. Special thanks to Marty Dread and Maui’s world class chefs who harvested produce with our students, then kept the crowd entertained while they feasted on delicious cuisine prepared from school garden ingredients. Not only do these chefs raise funds for school gardens, they also mentor students during recipe workshops to improve nutrition choices with localicious recipes!

Premiere chefs participated from Four Seasons Resort Maui at Wailea, Ferraro’s Bar e Ristorante, Capische? & Il Teatro, Spago, Private Maui Chef, and The Outrigger Pizza Company. Featured sponsors: First Wind, Maui No Ka ‘Oi Magazine, Four Seasons Resort and Hotel Wailea. Thanks to your support, Grow Some Good is expanding our programs to reach more keiki on Maui.

Check out photos by Peter Liu on Flickr.

For those of you just getting to know us, Grow Some Good is a nonprofit community program dedicated to creating hands-on, outdoor learning experiences that cultivate curiosity about natural life cycles, connect students to their food sources, and inspire better nutrition choices. In addition to helping establish food gardens and living science labs in local schools, we provide resources and curriculum support through partnerships in agriculture, science, food education and nutrition.

Dig into all the good things growing in our schools! Check out our volunteer page for more information or donate online. You can also join keep in touch via Facebook and Twitter.