2022 EmPOWERED to Serve Business Accelerator - Hawaii Finale

aloha and welcome to the finale showcase of the american heart association's hawaii empowered to serve business accelerator thank you for joining us i'm steve petranic editor of hawaii business magazine and i'm honored to support the important work of the hawaii division of the american heart association i'm especially excited about this business accelerator program and its support of the social entrepreneurs who are working to improve the health of people in the islands each of these eight social entrepreneurs are heroes they have completed a six-week mba style program and will be able to continue their work more effectively in the future based on this training each of them has impressed their teachers with their creativity and talent a few minutes you will be seeing their extraordinary business proposals one of these talented candidates will get a 25 000 grant to advance their vital efforts and a second candidate will receive ten thousand dollars plus a fan favorite that you will be voting on will receive five thousand dollars you'll help select that fan paper so stand by to cast your vote for all those watching please use zoom's chat feature at any time during this webinar to shout out encouragement and support for your favorite candidate it's a big evening for them so they welcome your support we will also be asking questions of our audience it's a simple poll and we'd love you to participate simply select your response as our questions appear on your zoom screen the american heart association believes every person deserves the opportunity for a full healthy life the association is working hard to overcome the social determinants of health and the structural racism that harms the hearts the brains and the lives of so many people in hawaii across the nation and even around the world we see these inequities all around us and we must not look away we see how people's circumstances hurt their health whether it is because of less education reduced access to health care and other care low income and low wealth where they live all those things impact your health and all of them go a long way to deciding if you die long before you should but it not does not have to be that way and the empowered to serve business accelerator it's an important step in overcoming these disparities the eight social entrepreneurs you will meet tonight are already working to reduce disparity in their communities and they have answered the heart association's call to improve the quality of life for people across hawaii mahalo nui loa to the team that has created and guided the empowered to serve hawaii accelerator they have worked hard and with enthusiasm you know to create this accelerator this project at any time would have been impressive but to do it during the pandemic is truly phenomenal here's something else that is impressive for this inaugural program they receive 23 applicants in a record time now the select group of eight candidates who are presenting their business proposals this evening they're offering community-centered solutions that seek to change behaviors expand access to resources to improve the long-term health of hawaii residents by overcoming systemic challenges in a moment you'll get to meet our three judges also who had the impossible task of choosing from among these eight proposals and seeing who will receive the grants of twenty five thousand dollars ten thousand dollars and five thousand dollars first mahalo to the sponsor and supporter of the empowered to serve business accelerator hawaii thank you kamehameha schools joining us is lauren name vice president of strategy and transformation for kamehameha schools to explain why commandments supports programs like this hello steve aloha and mahalo for joining us this evening for hawaii's first ever empowered to serve business accelerator for for those of you who aren't familiar kamehameha schools is a native hawaiian and christian school and our mission is to fulfill princess bernie's pawahi bishop's desire to create educational opportunities in perpetuity to improve the capability and well-being of people of hawaiian ancestry we are also a steward of commercial agricultural and conservation lands across the state and one of our main strategic 2025 goals is to engage with communities to educate and empower oe leaders to build resilient economies in other words we believe that our current and next generation of leaders in our community have the value set the passion the connection and the ingenuity to solve the challenges of our day like health equity with the right support and attention we were so excited to learn about aha's focus on the same issue as part of their 10 commitments for 2024 bringing forth a great reason to join forces we are proud to be a supporter of aha's mission and programs like this accelerator which promotes small business development and much needed support for entrepreneurs as you will see our local innovators some of whom will be showcased tonight are precious gems to be cultivated and invested in they are the social change agents as steve mentioned that will find the most equitable and sustainable ways to address critical basics that have evaded us including health nutrition and economic security we are grateful for the many applicants that have applied into this program and we know that while not all will win the prize this time rest assured that there will be many more opportunities for our entrepreneurs who are a part of this it was so inspiring for us to see so many talented and passionate leaders who are rising up with such innovative ways to address the health of our community in such critical times to you our audience look forward to being inspired and motivated together with us tonight thank you for joining joining us and now back to our master's ceremony steve mahalo lauren and thank you to kamehameha schools for supporting this valuable program before we introduce our judges a question for you in the audience to test your knowledge of some of the deadliest problems in hawaii here's our poll number poll question number one what percentage of adults in hawaii have one or more chronic conditions such as high blood pressure heart attack or that and also call that heart disease stroke and other conditions so what is the total percentage of hawaii's people have one or more of these conditions is the correct answer a 20 is that b 50 c 64 or 80 percent i'm sure all of us know someone who has died from a heart attack or stroke or been incapacitated by one yet i think many of us will be surprised by just how often people suffer from these chronic conditions these conditions killed both of my parents so i have seen the terrible toll first hand maybe you have to have we had enough time or we need some more time to give people to choose those answers let's review the answers one more time so a 20 of hawaii's adults have one of these chronic health conditions b 50 c 64. or d 88 which of these answers is correct if we had enough time to see the results yes yes the answer is c 64 that is almost two-thirds of hawaii's adults now one way we can address these chronic conditions is to identify the social determinants of health that hold back our communities and hold back our people tonight we will hear from change makers who are reshaping our environments they're reshaping our policies and our systems to support wellness and improve the quality and the years of life for hawaii's people as a reminder today's second place candidate will receive a ten thousand dollar grant the first place candidate will receive a twenty five thousand dollar grant and move on to the national empowered to serve accelerator for a opportunity to receive additional funding all of you who are watching today you will have an opportunity to vote for your fan favorite after all the candidates have presented and when the judges leave the call to deliberate and to decide on our uh our number one and number two uh candidates the fan favorite will receive a five thousand dollar grant the fan favorite link is in the chat now but you won't be able to use it until all the presentations are completed now let's uh talk about our judges we have three wonderful leaders from our community who have accepted the difficult task of selecting the grant awardees it is my pleasure to introduce them first is my friend and colleague cheryl ansi publisher of hawaii business magazine cheryl oversees sales marketing digital design digital design content events and me our events include the leadership conference top 250 black book and wahine forum cheryl serves on the board of the american lung association in hawaii and the patsy team mink center for business and leadership cheryl it's great to have you here thank you cheryl now we have bella hughes co-founder and head of mission and innovation at stockatee and in award-winning i'm sorry an award-winning line of sustainably sourced herbal teas brewed with hawaiian mamaki leaves hugh spends most of her time focused on championing abundance in her community through the arts agriculture and supporting women entrepreneurs mahalo bella for your work our third judge is kimmy timson project manager at kamehameha schools kimi works with the team at kamehameha schools to lead the agnes kalani community learning center project at the nanakuli village center this center will support aina based programs career development and training plus provide a home for lifelong learning opportunities for native hawaiians and those in the surrounding community mahalo to kimmy and all our judges for serving we appreciate you for volunteering your time to support this business accelerator now let's learn what the empowered to serve business accelerator program is all about in the united states nearly half of all adults have some form of cardiovascular disease often caused by the lack of access to the most basic needs needs such as healthy food clean air and drinking water quality education transportation employment and housing the american heart association is committed to making a difference in community health as a result the empowered to serve business accelerator supports entrepreneurs who design solutions to improve health in their under under-resourced communities our goal to address health disparities and create health equity for all over the past four years the business accelerator has trained close to 50 social entrepreneurs nationwide and provided over half a million dollars in grant funding media outlets such as cnn and fast company magazine have recognized and highlighted the great work our candidates have accomplished now in the midst of the global pandemic our communities are experiencing even more challenges the american heart association is proud to support uplift and help scale innovative solutions and the change makers behind them during this difficult time it is our goal to find the brightest social innovators around the world we are excited to support and help scale the visionary ideas of the entrepreneurs who will be sharing their ideas with all of us today get ready to be inspired yes you'd see that what you see on your screen is absolutely correct nearly half of all americans have some form of cardiovascular disease and it's often caused by the lack of access to the most basic needs now it's time to meet the candidates who are designing solutions to fight back against those challenged and doing it right here in hawaii now tonight's event is not a traditional pitch competition you're about to witness courage passion and resilience in action as each of these eight entrepreneurs present their compelling business stories our judges interviewed each of them during an expo event candidates presented the details of their business model how it can be scaled to help many people and the level of community impact that they can expect from their work the judges engaged with each candidate one-on-one with questions and heard their answers they were evaluating these best business models and one of the questions they were answering and they were asking themselves and the candidates how big will your impact be how can you help change and save lives today the candidates will be sharing their business story with the judges and with all of you and explain how they will help improve health equity across our state and especially among our under-resourced communities our candidates have been preparing for this moment for weeks so let's hear from our first candidate nicki ann yee nikki anne and her sisters founded ma'i movement hawaii to raise awareness about menstrual equity and period poverty in hawaii so all individuals of menstruation age have the right to access menstrual products and education without financial burden shame or stigma mahalo for being here i'd like to take you through a short exercise so we can all get on the same page can you please grab some water uh you don't need a lot just you know one to two tablespoons i have my water here and i'm happy to use a cup but you can also use something small like a measuring cup or a shot glass now take your water and i want you to pour it on your shorts or your pants or whatever you're wearing and feel the water soaking through now i'm sure you're thinking this is crazy but please bear with me you're doing this in the coming your home or wherever you're viewing this recording the water will dry up in no time now close your eyes imagine that instead of water this is menstrual blood may be mixed with some clots and tissue it's between your legs and it just happened without warning without control and you may not even know why it's happening it could be when at your office sitting in class buying groceries or riding the bus or metro now i want you to think how if you're a menstruator how does this make you feel does it bring up feelings of maybe panic anxiety if you don't bleed and you don't get your period can you imagine if this were your child your wife maybe even your boss having their period and not knowing what to do or how to handle it aloha my name is nikki any and i'm co-founder of my movement hawaii a local grassroots organizations i started with my sisters brandy and jamie in october of 2020. our mission is to end pure poverty in hawaii and address menstrual inequity it is the inadequate access or limited access to menstrual products or menstrual health education due to financial constraints social cultural stigmas around menstruation or not having period-friendly sanitation facilities or running water but i'm not here to talk about spilled water i'm here to talk about periods what you experienced and felt in the short exercises we did at the start was what half the population feels and experiences for an average of 40 years we're all adults and professionals here so we recognize that this is a completely normal bodily function yet a large part of the global population heck even in hawaii and nationally still don't treat it that way and sometimes even unknowingly but what if we could change that what if there was a better way to talk about menstruation to deal with it so that we could have a powerful impact on public health education and the economy i present our locally driven master class administration with access to sustainable money management and products you know like what gordon ramsay and alicia keys did for cooking and singing but this is a class on dignity administration when we piloted our sustainable mye program the objective was to deliver menstruation management education that was gender inclusive and locally inspired virtually while also giving participants access to their own choice of reusable product like period underwear a cup and also a cloth pad now here's what we found a majority of the participants preferred online self-paced modules they found the content was extremely enriching and they were satisfied with the delivery one respondent and participant said that not only were the learning materials great to learn about these products but also about her body and she appreciated because we didn't shy away from teaching women about themselves now think about that our education about our bodies about this very basic and normal bodily function is not being taught widely our master class will teach anyone who wants to learn about what's happening with their bodies how to manage it and more importantly why we need to break down the barriers it's education and dignity wrapped in a beautifully filmed and presented master class and free and accessible to anyone regardless of race gender socioeconomic background and at the end participants can access any period product that they want because what we value and was what is the most important is making sure everyone has access to knowledge empowering with them empowering them with that knowledge and that choice so when we take down all the barriers the financial the education and the access so that girls women and people who menstruate can live full lives and be productive members of society menstrual health is an indicator of overall health and we need to take it seriously when it when it comes to access to resources education and making a radical shift in the way that we think about it i saw glimpses of hope when we ran our school pilot menstruating and non-menstruating students alike became desensitized to the topic they felt more confident more empowered to make decisions about themselves and also for their peers now that pilot as you may know became and paved the way for the bill which is going to be signed into law by the governor on monday and it's because of that i truly believe that when we can tackle when we can humanize when we can fully understand the most basic part of ourselves and humanity we can make profound change all it takes is one class one person to make a small shift in our mindset and it would have a profound impact on future generations the way they look inwards to themselves and outwards to society thank you nikki anne and thank you to you and your team for your important efforts to end period poverty in hawaii i i wish every male in hawaii could see that video because it's clear that men do not understand this issue and they need to our second candidate is spencer van der kamp spencer's passion is fishing and as the pandemic took its toll on the fishing industry in hawaii he co-founded the realer mobile app which provides a virtual marketplace to order fish directly from small-scale fishers at affordable prices i'm a co-founder of the reeler app throughout college i was a semi-commercial fisherman fishing off the windward coast of oahu fishing is a very difficult job long hours harsh weather dangerous conditions and unlike most jobs with fishing a paycheck isn't guaranteed one of the biggest challenges about fishing that most people don't consider however is the challenge of marketing our catch once we're back to the dock our biggest issue is low and variable prices of our hard-earned catch especially when the pandemic hit all of the hotels and restaurants were closed so the prices dropped to like a quarter of the average prices some and some fish wouldn't even sell so to stay in business we started selling our fresh caught fish directly to consumers through a growing list of buyers our fishing friends started to notice our success and asked if we could help them sell their catch too the timing was perfect because our buyers had been asking for more and more fish than we could supply since the old fish from grocery stores just wouldn't cut it after they got used to buying such fresh fish from us so we started manually connecting buyers and sellers but as our list grew things got hard to handle logistically so we set out to create an easier way and came up with the realer mobile app reeler is a mobile app marketplace that gives people an affordable way to buy super fresh fish directly from local sustainable fishers you can download the app and you'll be notified when fresh fish is posted by fishers in your area you can learn about different kinds of fish then order pay and review the seller in the app with the growing popularity of the sharing economy realer helps to democratize a massive industry that's prone to monopoly we help to make it affordable for local people to eat fresher healthier fish with no preservatives while helping responsible small-scale fishers make a solid sustainable living giving more people affordable access to super fresh and hyper local fish help people eat better food and live healthier and live a healthier life fish is an awesome source of protein fish oils help to fight inflammation and prevent heart disease these fish are super high in omega-3 fatty acids which are essential dietary fats that help you maintain healthy cholesterol levels by lowering the triglyceride in your blood they can also help increase your hdl levels which is the good cholesterol that helps filter the bad cholesterol which is the mate which is a major factor in heart disease not only is fish really good for you it's also a great alternative to other meats in regards to cholesterol one of our buyers on the reeler app is a breast cancer survivor who is now a pescetarian and she only eats fish from the realer app because she knows it's local and fresh with no added colors or preservatives we launched reeler in the apple app store and google play store just over a year ago and we're on track to have a great summer fishing season here in hawaii we have almost 500 fishers signed up in the hawaiian islands and about 5 000 buyers throughout the year we've made slight modifications improvements and bug fixes to the app based on user feedback which has been very positive people who purchase on the app are blown away by the difference and quality and freshness compared to the fish they get in stores over 50 of our customers make multiple repeat purchases and that will likely increase as we as we go on so we do have a few more things to fix on the app but one of the biggest challenges so far has been marketing since we need to match buyers and sellers in certain areas because we're so like geographically constrained so we can't rely exclusively on natural growth which has been good so far so since we're a marketplace we kind of need like a critical mass um that has to be met in order to match the buyers and the sellers in the same area in a short amount of time in order to have enough buyers so that the fishermen can actually sell their catch but also have enough um sellers that the buyers don't get like bored and just leave the app um so the grant would be super helpful for us um so we could do more marketing needed to get that critical mass in certain areas where we have like an imbalance of more buyers than sellers or vice versa in the year that we've been in business we have found that one of the best things about starting realer and selling fish on it has been the sense of community that we've helped to foster it's really changed the way like we look at food and like our community as a young responsible fisherman i feel obligated to do everything i can to help improve the current system so more people can access and afford to eat better food and live a healthier life thank you thank you spencer for that video it was a real treat to hear how the ocean is a vital source of heart healthy food and how we can buy fish sustainably and economically while supporting local fishers i know i'm going to be downloading the app because i um which i stopped eating meat last year in order to protect my my heart and i'm eating fish and plant-based foods alone and so this is a great thing that i plan to take advantage of our next innovator is bryn foster brian is the founder of voyaging foods a miller and baker of hawaii grown canoe plant flower based food products access and availability to healthy food is not only a challenge for many but sourcing products made with local ingredients especially locally made flour is even more challenging especially if you want gluten-free products you might have heard the donning statistics hawaii imports over 80 percent of our food and is a few days away from a serious food shortage those who live in these islands know all too well when there is a hurricane warning or mainland shutdown of imports our grocery shelves are immediately emptied within ours what is even more serious is that hawaii is a hundred percent dependent on imported flour which makes baked good products vulnerable to changes in price and availability hawaii does not have flour milling factories nor do we grow we and furthermore imported ingredients such as wheat or imported flour has a reduced shelf life and puts our islands at risk for pests sometimes hidden inside imported food imports aloha i'm brendan foster founder and founder of voyaging foods we make tasty healthy gluten-free products from canoe plant flowers such as hawaiian ground taro bread fruit and sweet potato we create access and availability to these underutilized category of plants that are good sources of fiber which most gluten-free diets are missing voyaging foods is a hawaiian and women-owned social enterprise with over three decades of collective experience in making canoe plant-based products seem statewide in stores and markets my team are focused on building a healthier and less wasteful regenerative food system that supports traditional farming practices and value-added flower production while creating a new economic model for marketable products such as locally made flower our culinary and business expertise passion for farming and cultural lineage ignites this vision not only are the majority of gluten-free products lacking in in nutritious flours but they also contain unnecessary refined ingredients did you know 40 of fruits and vegetables are wasted and crops graded b and c are left on the tree or fall to the ground to rot which would have made perfectly good flour canoe plant flower production is critical for hawaii to reconnect to culture reduce waste and contribute to doubling food production by 2030 which was set forth by the state sustainability initiatives when i learned how our native hawaiian pacific islander communities are disappropriately affected by heart disease and stroke and hawaii's bottom of the barrel ranking in u.s economic opportunity i decided my company served to be more than just a food product company but one of the solutions to a broken food system when we when we base our work in the rural farming area of waialua of the north shore of oahu we positively impact the health of our local economy to create opportunities for communities to increase productivity in these rural areas our products that are made with canoe plant bar such as tarot flower increase dietary fiber as it has more than twice the fibrous potatoes and is a replacement for starches and low fiber baked goods which also help in the proper control and management of blood sugar so within the next year we plan to scale our communication production from 500 pounds to 20 000 pounds we can make over 200 000 of nutrient-dense cookies for our community our specialty products will be sold direct to consumer and business channels we're also partnering with local farmers to help grow these crops and share which value-added manufacturing previously missing we've developed a regional and decentralized value-added processing center to dehydrate mill and microproduce dried plants such as kidney plant flowers and how a grant from the american heart association will help us is we'll allow our model to establish distribution and increase our direct sales to consumers and define our product flow we will be able to expand our educational workshops and our wayfinder mobile mills which will be done virtually as well and will be able to hold educational demonstrations on how to produce these flowers how to cook and bake with them and incorporate them our big goal is to expand our flour and products production and expand throughout the islands establishing a decentralized and regional value-added food system with our mobile profile processing units and sharing our knowledge with farmers and homemakers in closing i ask you to consider a food secure hawaii reigniting the health of our community based on our indigenous crops that have been grown here for thousands of years canoeing flower is good for the health of our community and culture thank you bren for showing us how local food can keep us heart healthy what's amazing from just hearing from three of these innovators and entrepreneurs is the diverse possibilities there are in making us healthier and helping our communities overcome the discrimination and disparities in health outcomes next we'll hear from colby takeda colby is the co-founder and ceo of pear suite which enables community health workers non-licensed health care workers and volunteers to become virtual care navigators hi my name is kobe takeda i'm the co-founder and ceo of pair suite we're on a mission to assess and address the social drivers of health through better data i was born and raised in honolulu hawaii but i spent time in communities across the country working to make the healthy choice easier through proving the social terms of health i'm also a former senior living executive helping helped helping helped more open more over three senior living facilities and helped run my own in 2015. they are oversaw with 20 employees 120 employees and helped throughout the year with transportation meals activities for 150 older adults despite working with hundreds of older adults i struggled to help my own grandparents as i got older over time grandma struggled to make her own meals and take her medications when grandpa stopped driving he missed doctor appointments and couldn't see his friends as often i bet we all can think of people in our own lives who are struggling at home they may not be able to make three meals a day because they don't have healthy food and living in a food desert and they feel lonely and socially isolated something that affects over 40 percent of older adults they might not have a safe home environment to live in putting them at risk for falls or they may be sipping on their medications because they don't know how to read a label these challenges are known as the social drivers of health and while they may seem simple they can impact 80 of health outcomes and for older adults and underserved populations this can be especially challenging when not addressed and worst of all the health organizations that are supposed to be responsible for the well-being of these individuals just have no idea they don't know what social challenges each individual is facing and how serious they are and it all comes down to a lack of data because the health our care organizations lack this data over 20 million older adults cannot safely live in their own homes something i witness over and over and over again because of the lack of data that older adults are constantly unnecessarily ending up emergency rooms operating rooms and nursing homes totaling billions of dollars in healthcare waste but it doesn't have to be that way peer suite is a software platform that helps the staff of health systems community centers and senior centers collect visualize understand and act on social arts and health data when using the parachute platform they can collect information about the lifestyle strengths challenges needs and interests all by phone and text our platform smart script technology prompts staff to ask the right questions and learn about the whole person not just patient we learn where they live what their environment is like what they like to eat what their education and background is if they have pets and hobbies and sports we know all this we learn about their challenges and actually try to provide solutions to them this is the type of data that healthcare organizations wish they had but don't our tech enabled person-centered approach helps staff to build strong relationships with members through thoughtful conversation starters regular check-ins and ongoing support our platform then takes all that information and creates actionable dashboards something that is so valuable for staff without much effort they're presented with strengths and challenges and potential programs and services they may qualify for parachute replaces paper assessments and manual tracking through excel spreadsheets to revolutionize social care coordination allowing staff to provide the right resources at the right time and guide staff to provide the very virtual friendly handle to get all this done with our platform organizations can cost effectively we increase engagement levels boost health outcomes increase dependence and lower health care costs the past 12 months we've worked with 13 customers to impact over 10 000 lives we've also built new partnerships and going to be reaching over 60 000 individuals this year alone since launching we've helped conduct over 3 000 friendly check-ins to support loneliness and social isolation we've helped over 5 000 individuals get vaccinated through the coven boosters and vaccines clinics we've helped with transportation to these clients and helped over 4000 individuals receive healthy food access resources such as learning about snap benefits and meals on wheels learning about local farmers markets and grocery store delivery options over a thousand individuals have helped to qualify for that affordable connectivity program help them get onto telehealth options and learn about technology use and digital literacy classes we've also helped countless individuals learn about ell courses physical activity programs and social support groups in the community over that same period we've trained over 50 community health workers medical assistants students and more with the percy platform and they love it they have over 95 satisfaction rates and the older adults getting the care have been gauged at 62 or higher more than double the industry average in addition to myself our team includes a chief technology officer nick who is duke trained engineer has worked at microsoft and other several startups we also have sasha our chief operating officer who has over 12 years experience in senior health most recently with an area agency in aging supporting over 300 000 lives we're extremely excited about this opportunity to partner with american heart association and receive a grant and potentially work with them throughout their subject matter expert network as well as their key partnerships across the country impact in impacting a cardiovascular health is also very key for us specifically around social diseases health physical activity nutrition and increasing social connectivity we love to partner with them to co-design experiences that aligns with the medical community and can get our metrics dealing with clinical outcomes older adults are the fastest growing population in the us today over ten thousand older adults turn 25 every single day and they all need to support repair suite fair is already helping thousands of lives in hawaii and with our partnership with american heart we know we can expand this throughout the country we're also starting with care coordination teams and health systems and health community health centers which is already a 10 billion dollar market opportunity but with our software we can help seniors and scale this work to other settings such as rehab facilities senior living as well as home care settings peer students on a mission to better assess and address the social charter's health through better data thank you very much thank you colby for a creative and community-based solution to the challenge of health disparities and in fact i i love how these are not just ideas these are not pipe dreams these are actual programs in each case that are already working that are already helping people and changing lives and what the empowered accelerator program does is it gave them training it gave them connections and and tools in which to improve their programs and of course there'll be money for a select few at the end of this evening but all of them benefited from the training and the mba style program that helped them will help them take their innovations to help their programs to the next level so mahalo to all of you and to the people who are making this program happen we have four more candidates to hear from but first let's do another poll for everyone in the audience what is the third leading cause of death in hawaii is it a cardiovascular disease heart disease b diabetes c cancer or is a d stroke all of these diseases and conditions have listed here are deadly killers but we wanted to know what you think is the number three killer in hawaii and what's extraordinary about the solutions offered today is many of them if not all of them are designed to reduce all four of these deadly diseases you think about it the impact is so great and yet we can deal with these problems so the answer let's let's give you some more time what is the third leading cause of death in hawaii and i'm looking over here on my left because that's where the screen where my screen is positioned a is cardiovascular b is diabetes cancer or stroke and the answer is stroke it is the third leading cause of death in hawaii despite its falling to the fifth leading cause nationally so we are struggling in hawaii with stroke much more than the nation is and stroke is the leading cause of major disability in hawaii stroke incapacitates so many people and it is a deadly problem that we we should be doing better on the number one killer in hawaii of course remains uh cardiovascular disease and that's number one in both ya and the nation to continue the life-saving work of the american heart association please consider making a gift and we're going to make it easy for you to donate you can pull out your phone and we're going to throw up a cure there it is a qr code on the screen you can use your phone to scan that qr code and it'll take you to the the heart association's website to make a donation or you can go in your browser to hi highheartwalk.org which you can see there in red towards the bottom of the slide highheartwalk.org

you can make a donation there and that's also the place where you can sign up for the heart association's upcoming walk which is saturday august the 6th at uh starting at kapiolani regional park and it's going to be a fun event lots of people will be there you can learn more while on the website or learn more when you uh show up for the walk we'll put that link in the chat box for you to learn more and we hope to see you at the heart walk on august 6th at kapiolani park let's hear from more of our candidates and the innovative ways they are addressing social determinants of health in our communities joining us next is aaron ossoo a big believer in approving kapuna care aaron supports workforce development initiatives in the aging and healthcare fields through high school curriculum a kupuna in my community wrote a melakai that describes us change makers uncle sai wrote hikimai and napua to describe how we choose to climb mountains and further we choose to climb the highest mountains and because of this we become our kupuna's most cherished adornment my favorite line from that malakai is and that means that you're the most cherished adornment that your kupuna wear upon their neck aloha my name is aaron asu is home graduated from kuku high school in 2008 my purpose is to create new solutions based on community and hawaiian history my mission is to innovate and improve the field of aging through unusual collaborations at first i looked at this map of oahu and had plenty dots on the bottom um close to honolulu and on the top of the island where i'm from kuala lua had only two dots and each dot represents a cocoon of service that made me worried because how are my parents going to age in place when there's no services there on their side of the island and as i researched this topic more i came across an article in pubmed and the title reads family caregiving and the intergenerational transmission of poverty and i felt um that was something my family nearly experienced and i don't think that's any place that any hawaiian or anybody should be stuck between choosing to provide care for your family or choosing to burden future generations financially because of things that you sacrifice and a big part of that is that we have so many kupuna they call it the silver tsunami so in 2011 baby boomers started turning over 65 and in addition to that we have we don't have enough healthcare practitioners so the solution is to build a bigger and better workforce for them i partnered with dr christie nishida over at the uh manoa center in aging together we created that elder care curriculum and our goal was to help high school students form a positive view on aging and since 2019 we've reached over 400 students and the most meaningful outcome of our curriculum was at the beginning only 2 percent of students thought about a career in aging and at the end of our curriculum at the end of our six lessons 79 were interested in a career in aging and we're really excited to scale and move from oahu to maui and kauai this coming fall but our elder care curriculum that is a social initiative and it thrives on grant funding but what our elder care curriculum needs is for aging to be rebranded and with the grant funding from this competition i want to build a brand a brand called malama yaou or take care of me a brand that focuses on updating and innovating the field of aging take care of me represents this duality this relationship between kupuna and keiki they both have kuleana to each other kupuna to rear nurture and guide our keiki and keiki to find their kuleana and to enter the workforce of aging and to take care of either whether it's professionally or non-professionally we need to take care of our kupuna and i know that we can you know hawaii knows how to take good care of their kupuna um let's rebrand this let's rebrand aging together let's represent our kupuna well and let's be their most cherished adornment that they were upon their neck thank you aaron for a moving presentation and for empowering our youth to get involved with aging and with health care um you know i loved her metaphor about the mountain and when we climb a mountain it is not done alone we rarely climb mountains alone we do it as a team and together so a wonderful presentation thank you next up is destiny alpanti destiny is the owner of manifestoni a community enrichment program providing a mobile food pantry and farm to table culinary classes to teach nutrition and self-sufficiency hi i'm destiny aponte i'm the owner of mana fascinating i created this program on the concept that we're capable of manifesting our own destiny through mana which is the spiritual energy that collects us all um i'm developing this grow your roots program and the concept of farm feed and empower i believe in lifting as you climb in communal progression which allows us to achieve more together as a unit versus as individuals a little bit about my background i am a chef i started cooking when i was about 10. it became my saving grace um i had a rough childhood experienced a lot of things most people don't overcome and i started getting in touch with my spirituality and understood that the importance of overcoming the victim mentality um so i kind of just dove myself into culinary arts cooked in new york city i grew up in san antonio and when i was a kid i would just watch the food network and i had this little notebook where i would write down all my recipes and just was obsessed with with cooking so when i was like 18 i knew that i wanted to go live in new york city and be with the best so my parents wanted me to go to university i went to college and um decided it wasn't for me junior year dropped out on a full ride my parents were upset but whatever it was my dream i went to culinary school and while there i ended up working at nobu and started at nobu went to work at john george did everything that i ever envisioned went to 11 madison park verstaj did beat bobby flay so that kind of did the whole full circle of my culinary career and i was third it was about 30 when kobe hit and that was at the time that i just finished filming for b bobby flay and i was like where do i go next right the whole culinary is shutting down that's what i set my mission into in life so i just decided you know what when you lost travel i know kobe probably wasn't the best time to be traveling but i did the best what i could with the circumstances and um i ended up moving to hawaii and i stayed in hawaii for a bit to visit my nieces and just decided i would stay here and for me that was my first test and non-attachment so i left my whole apartment in new york and i told my landlord hey i haven't been here in six months i don't need anything i'm gonna stay in hawaii um fast forward i ended up applying to a job in lanai turns out that my chef from nobu new york was the chef there so they got me a job oh well i got a job there and that was my first um experience with really witnessing what the food insecurity looks like in on the islands lanai is a privately owned island and the people there there's one grocery store so if they want something that's cost effective maybe like costco or something they have to pay 60 round trip to take a ferry not only do they have to take a ferry from the ferry they have to rent a car or something just to go to costco and back so i started seeing how the food system in hawaii really is and how it's broken so while i was in lanai i joined the go farm hawaii program and the first farm visit that we did was uncle george kahumoku which he's like a hawaiian legend musician but he's taken me on and mentored me the past 10 months and to the point where he's denied me as his niece so hannah is like a form of adoption in the hawaiian culture so i've been working directly with him and that's kind of how i cross paths with bianca of the pono outdoor program so it's a cultural immersion program where the kids are learning the culture and how to farm and how to be self-sufficient and that's where my program kind of falls in is i want to be able to educate the youth on how to be self-sufficient uh teach them how to farm the entrepreneurship side of it as well just so it's like they're learning how to sustain themselves but also not only to eat but financially so this program i'm teaching the kids how to farm and how to cook and then as they develop their culinary schools skills i have a mobile food pantry that we're going to utilize to feed the community um it's very important to be a i want to teach them the importance of giving back to the community but also the hawaiian culture is very big on caring for the kupuna the elderly you know and the mobile food pantry allows me to bring food to the people and the problem a big problem with um food insecurity is those that tend to be food insecure don't really have the time or the capacity to cook for themselves so that's why i'm stressing being able to provide meals for them and also provide small kind produce that the kids are growing themselves that yeah it gives them a sense of purpose um and it creates a regenerative system so that way the kids are feeding the elderly and what we're doing as well is csas the kids are going to learn the business side of the csa and we're also partnering with other farmers to help them develop their business as well going back to the whole lift as you climb communal progression because the food system here is circular right but because of tourism and stuff it kind of goes off but we need to bring it back in so that it's staying on the island um so with the csas as well i'm creating value-added products and i'm teaching the kids how to create their own products but also working with farms and right now i'm working on a partnership with uhmc they have a um beekeeping program so i'm buying their honey from them at cost and have a lilikoi balsamic that i do with it and they're getting a percentage of the the cells from each product as well so it's kind of giving the farmers a little bit more incentive and a little bit of more traction to develop their farms and continue to grow as well um yeah and after the first cohort i plan on going into working with kids in foster care the first one i kind of want to get everything solidified and why i want to work with kids in foster care is because once they turn 18 they become basically on their own they can no longer be in the system and okay and um that's i want to go with that because like i recently got custody of my niece and all of her siblings are in foster care and i see firsthand the effect that it can have about not having um a secure ground to be able to stand on and having support wow thank you destiny for opening up about your life about your mission and about the work you're doing in so many different ways wow what a what a force for change now we'll hear from ali akina ali is the co-owner of healthy baby hawaii which sells and delivers organic baby food and toddler snacks to families across oahu thank you my name is ali akina and i am a mother of two like any mom i always want what's best for my babies and oftentimes put their needs before mine ultimately everything i do is for them so when my firstborn was just about to start solids i was so excited to start feeding her but i was also really nervous so i started doing all the research i looked up blog posts listened to all of my mom friends asked them what they did and i ultimately came to the conclusion that i was gonna make her baby food at home so i went to the grocery store i only shopped organic i chopped peeled cut pureed everything i was so proud um i felt like i was killing the mom game and then a short two years later my son was ready to start solids and things had changed a little bit i now had a toddler and an infant and i just didn't have the time i still wanted what was best for him but i just didn't have the time in my day so i went to the grocery store to try to find him something decent to eat i wandered the baby food shelves and our baby food aisles looking for something that i felt comfortable feeding him i found it ironic that there were refrigerated pet food refrigerators on the end caps of all of these grocery stores but nothing for our babies i wish that there was a healthier better option so i started talking to my friend and fellow mom and now business partner and that's how healthy baby hawaii was started we give parents more time in their day by providing them with fresh locally made baby food and toddler snacks delivered to their door each week you and your baby deserve the best we deliver it see the problem is that shelf baby food even organic brands are highly processed cooked at extremely high temperatures and sometimes sit on the grocery store shelves for years a lot of these simple a lot of these purees lose nutrition when they're cooked that way and they end up like a text a textureless simple sugar puree we all know that nutrition plays a huge role in our overall health even more so for developing babies and toddlers the food you feed your baby in the first three years can affect their medic their physical and mental development and have a lasting impact on their immune system healthy baby hawaii is the only fresh baby food company in hawaii we're the only ones providing this integral service for our community until healthy baby hawaii was started moms like me only had two choices make their baby food at home which is time consuming or buy off the shelves at the grocery store we have recently partnered with the hawaii food bank to give back to our community we know not everyone can afford our product and service but we also know how important it is for all babies to have access to a healthy meal for every purchase that's made through our website we donate two meals to moms and babies healthy baby hawaii has been in business for uh over four years now we have 80 weekly subscribers and roughly 30 a la carte orders a week our customer return rate is 73 and our average customer lifespan is 11 months we have many moms that come back to us after having second babies in fact our first very first monthly subscriber is now back with her third um i think we have such a loyal customer base because we are simply moms helping other moms it started with the babies for sure but now we realize it's really about the mamas we create a safe and trustworthy space for our customers and can relate to their struggles and experiences because we've both been in their shoes feeding your baby solids is very exciting but it's also nerve-wracking we offer a customer experience big baby food brands can't our offerings are customizable convenient and made by moms that just get it moms want the best for their babies and want convenience and time to spend with their families as a mom i can definitely speak to this the mental load can be overwhelming we're often burnt out overworked over to overstimulated and overtired the to-do list is forever looming and always growing if you can just take one thing off of your to-do list it can be such a release and that is what we strive to do at healthy a grant from the aha would allow us to automate our process so that we can help more families have access to healthier baby food this grant would also help us launch our superfood baby cereal so we can change the way our babies eat with their very first bites this new product contains local superfoods such as kalo and oolu grown by hawaii farmers and will inherently contribute to hawaii's economy the grant money would be used for machinery testing packaging and marketing of this signature product launching this product will also allow us to scale our business outside of hawaii and gain more traction for our service-based food business parenting is hard enough let us take a little off your plate and put it on theirs mahalo for your time thank you ali for a great organization um and and for a great idea and good luck with your idea and in the competition today now our final candidate noe foster with the help of two other native hawaiians noe foster started health tech apps which utilizes artificial intelligence machine learning technologies to help people tell their health story and improve their brain health hello friends aloha i'm noah foster co-founder of healthtech apps our story began 10 years ago with three native hawaiian co-founders we are on a moonshot mission to improve the brain health of millions of people everywhere and we're starting with screen agers who i'm sure you know a few screen agers are teenagers and young adults who experience much of life in front of a screen as toddlers they tapped or swiped on a screen long before they ever reached for a book the coven pandemic pushed screen agers mental health off a catastrophic cliff social determinants of health like gender rights gender identity and ethnicity puts screen agers in a free fall in march more than half 52 percent of screen agers reported feeling down depressed and or hopeless several days in the past two weeks alarmingly 24 of screen agers reported suicidal thoughts and it jumps to 39 for lgbtq plus screenagers sadly in the last four years we've seen a disturbing trend six of the nine deadliest school shootings were by gunmen 21 years old or younger our minds are not designed to absorb and prop process this much violence loss and grief the morning after the uvalde texas school shooting i was up before the sun in my kitchen i added cold water to a bowl of bisquick flour and stirred i never baked biscuits on a weekday but today the smell of baking biscuits calmed my heavy heart as i waited for a 6 30 am zoom call the facilitator spoke first noi i've been thinking about your technology how could it be used to prevent this kind of tragedy in truth that's the same question that kept me up all night so here's my answer we need a rocket and not just any rocket but a brain health rocket to achieve our moonshot mission to save precious lives our team has the blueprints ai technology and the experience to complete this mission in april apple approved and published our free my health story iphone app it's the first brain health app designed in olelo hawaii native hawaiian language and translated into english why because ethnicity culture and language for native hawaiian students helps to shape their identity and purpose these social determinants of health influence their decision to persist in school and graduate earning a university degree directly impacts the students financial stability long term also a social determinant of health with our app 88 percent of screen agers reported suicidal thoughts in the last two weeks immediately our app pushed out a notification to each of these screen agers that read hey you matter to us we want you to be safe along with the phone number for the national suicide prevention lifeline we partnered with the coup project at instagram native

2022-07-21 20:42

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