Chickens stolen from Waimea Middle School garden

KAILUA-KONA — Over 260 students will return to Waimea Middle School today to receive devastating news about their feathered farm friends.

On Friday night, seven of 16 chickens were stolen from a fenced coop at Malaai, The Culinary Garden of Waimea Middle School. The garden serves as an outdoor living classroom providing hands-on environmental science and health-wellness lessons for students.

“The hens belong to the students who regularly feed and care for them. It’s a meaningful learning experience to be responsible for their well-being,” said Amanda Rieux, the garden’s founder and program director. “Students love our hens. They also regularly harvest their eggs to learn to prepare healthy delicious food.”

She continued, “A lot of my students really care for the gardens and they really care for the chickens because they’re living animals and they interact with them in a nurturing way … they feed them, collect eggs, make omelets. There are children who really come out to visit the chickens.”

Around 7:15 a.m. Saturday, a volunteer went to the garden to let out the chickens and discovered that the lock to the coop was broken, and almost half of the hens were missing. There were also displaced items such as a flipped over bin, a bag that had been emptied out, and the garden’s outer gate left open. Hawaii Police officers soon responded to the scene.

“We are heartbroken to discover this morning that the coop had been broken into and seven of our beloved hens were gone… stolen,” Holly Sargent-Green, the Malaai Garden leader, said in a press release issued the following day. “Who would steal our students’ hens?”

With the garden, crops, and animals being such an integral part of the students’ education, explaining to the pupils what happened to their chickens will be no easy conversation.

“Hopefully, with the guidance of the adults and the things that they — the students — hear outside of the garden about it- that they’ll be able to see how this is not a situation that’s ideal, but that we can take something that maybe isn’t ideal but do our best to prevent it and move on,” said Rieux.

The Malaai School Garden has been available to students for nearly 14 years and strives to cultivate a relationship between students and the land through growing and sharing nourishing food. Students from science, physical education and health, and Ike Hawaii classes participate in garden lessons throughout the year.

The garden is made possible by volunteers who mentor students and support classes, upkeep the grounds as well as assist with fundraising and developmental improvements.

“From our community, we’ve been able to survive and thrive because people have been so supportive … we’ve been able to have several thousands of students in the garden,” said Rieux.

This community aspect, combined with a passion for student education, is what provides a welcoming atmosphere of the garden.

“It’s a place where when school’s not in session, people can walk through, and that everybody can have their own relationship with the space and that gives it more value,” said Rieux.

“Things happen in our lives that are upsetting … we need to be able to figure out the best way to move forward,” said Rieux. “If our chickens made it back to us, it would speak on our community really taking care of everybody and caring about our kids.”

Anyone with information should contact the Waimea Police Station at 887-3080 or the police department’s nonemergency number at 935-3311. Those who prefer anonymity may call Crime Stoppers at 961-8300.