Kōkua Learning Farm: Workdays, Events and the Farm Stand

The Kōkua Hawaiʻi Foundation bought eight acres in the middle of Haleʻiwa in 2019: fallow farmland plus two historic commercial buildings beside it (Star-Advertiser). Seven of those acres are now the Kōkua Learning Farm, and the buildings hold the foundation’s shops. The foundation itself dates to 2003, when Jack and Kim Johnson held the first Kōkua Festival (KHF).

The farm is a working school farm, not an attraction with a ticket window. The foundation’s visit page is plain about it: to see the farm, register for a community workday or book a private one by email. Field trips are for schools, and they are booked through the 2026-27 school year. So plan a visit around a date: a first Saturday, or one of the events below. The two shops out front keep regular hours, and you can stop in on any drive through town.

Fun Day is the easiest way onto the farm. The 2026 edition runs on Saturday, October 24, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., with music from Allegro Keiki, face painting, pumpkin picking, crafts and tastings from the fields. The ʻĀINA Farm Stand makes shave ice, there are plants and flowers for sale, and Drew Wilkinson of Growing Together runs a free tree-grafting workshop from 11 to 1. The Kōkua General Store holds a costume swap the same day. The foundation has not posted a price for this year; last year’s was free, with some activities and items to buy, and drew more than 250 people.

The Farm to Table Dinner is the ticketed night on the farm: Friday, October 30, 5 to 8 p.m., cooked by chef Miriam Olivas. Seats are sold at a shared Community Table, as a Table of 6, or as a private Table of 8, and members got the first chance at them from September 24. The first dinner, in 2023 with chef Ed Kenney and Mud Hen Water, sold out. Check the event page before you build an evening around it.

The next day, October 31, Mānoa Chocolate sets up a tasting at the farm stand from 10 to 2 and sells a Kōkua Learning Farm chocolate bar. The foundation’s events calendar carries every date, including the workdays into 2027.

Workdays run on the first Saturday of the month from 9:00 to 11:30 a.m., they are free, and the foundation calls them open to the public: families, students, educators, businesses. The work changes with the season. The workday page lists agroforestry, mulching, weeding, trimming, loʻi clearing, planting and harvesting, and the farm page adds ʻōpala (trash) pickup and nursery work. Supervised keiki are welcome, and no minimum age is posted.

Sign up on the workday registration form, one entry per person, and complete the foundation’s liability and media waiver; both are required. The calendar lists November 7 and December 5, then January 2, February 6, March 6, April 3 and May 1, 2027. The date has moved in some months, so check the calendar the week before.

A group of your own (a family reunion, a company offsite) can ask for a private workday at volunteer@kokuahawaiifoundation.org. If a morning of farm work is what you want from a trip, this is the one in Haleʻiwa, and it is done by 11:30, in time for lunch in town.

The farm, the farm stand and the general store all use one address, 66-249 Kamehameha Highway, in the middle of Haleʻiwa town and across the highway from North Shore Marketplace. From central Waikīkī it is about 34 miles by our measurement: H-1 west, H-2 north, then the highway into town. With clear roads that is about an hour. Leave Waikīkī by 7:45 for a 9:00 workday and you have room for traffic. Our Oahu Drive Map has the North Shore stops in driving order.

Haleʻiwa is the base for the rest of the coast. Our North Shore guide puts the beaches, food and things to do on one map.

The ʻĀINA Farm Stand is the farm you can visit any week. It opened in November 2024 (KHF) in the property’s historic flower shop, Unit B on the highway, and sells produce from the Kōkua Learning Farm and other local farms, value-added products, locally grown flowers and lei. The opening announcement added coffee and café items, chilled and frozen goods, drinks, and local meat and seafood. All of the proceeds go to the foundation.

What is on the table follows the farm. Roselle, the tart red hibiscus, and limes both come out of the fields, and the stand has posted a roselle recipe to go with them. Behind the stand is the Backyard Garden, an edible and native landscape the foundation uses for workshops and pop-ups.

The stand is open Tuesday to Friday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., and Saturday, 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m., closed Sunday and Monday; phone (808) 260-1900. It posts pop-ups and schedule changes on Instagram.

Next door, the Kōkua General Store has been open since April 2022 (KHF). It sells bulk, refill and low-waste household goods: bring a jar or buy one. Kōkua Vintage shares the space, with second-hand clothing, records, books, housewares and art from more than 14 local businesses.

The store’s page says it is open seven days: Monday to Friday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and weekends, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.; phone (808) 744-5222. As with the stand, other pages on the foundation’s site list fewer days, and the store posts changes on Instagram.

The farm launched in December 2019 (Star-Advertiser) and covers seven acres in several eco-zones. Farm director Rawley Riccio grew up in Wahiawā and spent six years at MAʻO Organic Farms in Waiʻanae before he came here (KHF).

The newest piece is the Hawaiian Garden, which the foundation finished in September 2026 and calls the farm’s final puzzle piece (KHF). It is laid out in the shape of a kalo leaf with six zones: coastal plants (ʻilima, ʻōhai), dryland plants (wiliwili, ʻukiʻuki), plants named in the Kumulipo chant, an endangered species garden that includes naupaka papa, a laʻau lapaʻau garden of medicinal plants (ʻawa, moa, koʻokoʻolau), and canoe crops such as ʻulu and several kinds of kalo. Rick Barboza and Hui Kū Maoli Ola designed the paths and chose the plants.

The farm also runs the Kōkua Compost Program, which takes food waste from schools, camps and restaurants, more than 2,000 pounds a week by the foundation’s count, and turns it into compost in an in-vessel composter named Tina. Schools come for Thursday field trips, high school interns farm through 15-week cohorts, and teachers train here every quarter.

Two views from Instagram: a reel from Carissa Cabrera (@carissaandclimate), and a post from the stand itself. Follow @kokualearningfarm and @ainafarmstand for workday photos and what is on the table this week.

A workday ends at 11:30, which leaves the rest of the day for the coast. Lunch is across the street or at the North Shore food trucks, and Laniakea, the turtle beach, is a short drive up the highway. For the full list of stops, see what to do on Oahu’s North Shore and the things to do on Oahu guide.

Want a farm you can walk into without signing up? Waimānalo Country Farms on the east side runs its fall pumpkin patch with no reservations through mid-November. The Kōkua farm asks for a morning of work instead, and puts you in the fields with the people who farm them.