WAILUA — Likeke Carvalho, a child of COVID-19, was quietly sitting in his stroller when the Mahalo Market Wednesday opened its doors for the first time at the Ho‘omana Thrift Store in Wailua.
Likeke’s mother, Taleea Carvalho, now the owner and operator of Wailua Granola Company, was one of the hundreds of people affected by the pandemic, fighting with the problems of unemployment, no income, and lots of time to stay at home.
Taleea took advantage of some of the problems being faced by her family, and set out baking granola, gradually expanding the operation to where she could rent a commercial kitchen and produce enough product to have it approved in stores centrally located around Wailua.
Then came Likeke.
“It was the business, first,” Taleea said. “When I realized I had enough time to be able to raise my baby, we decided to start a family because I could do my work and still be able to watch my child grow.”
Adjacent to Wailua Granola, Mailiana Hamada, and her children, Asae Hamada and Ha‘a Smith, had a similar story at Nostalgic Scents of Hawai‘i presented by Ha‘a and Co.
“I used to do this only on special occasions like Mother’s Day,” Mailiana said. “But my friends kept encouraging me to do more because people would buy them. I was just trying to find the essence of the flower fragrances.”
Mailiana finally relented to the pressures of living with the pandemic and ventured forth beyond the home study.
Taleea and the Wailua Granola Company, Hamada and Nostalgic Scents of Hawai‘i were just two of about a dozen vendors who dotted the back yard of the Ho‘omana Thrift Store.
“We’ll have more, next week,” said Kamealoha Smith of the Hanalei River Heritage Foundation that administers the grant that allowed the market to open. “One of the booths will be a mo‘olelo station where we’ll have people available to talk about this Wailua area, and interact with shoppers. Part of the beauty of markets is the stories, and the vendors have them. They are here.”
Smith, who traces his lineage to the Hanohano Pa from Wainiha, and the Smith ‘ohana whose current generations operate the Smith’s Wailua River features like the Fern Grotto Tour and the Tropical Lu‘au said the grant from the Administration for Native Americans, a division of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is a result of the collaborative discussions with the Wailua community, the Ho‘omana Thrift Store, and others.
Set in the midst of ongoing construction to Olohena Road and the neighboring Kuhio Highway widening project, the marketplace is an upspoken showcase of resilience to not only the COVID pandemic, but for some of the problems posed by everyday life.
“This is an open market,” Smith said. “It has Hawaiian, Pacific Islanders, fresh produce, value-added products, and more. It has what we eat.”
The grant covers a lot of the opening a market costs like tents, the picnic tables, banners, and more, Smith said. Additionally, there is enough to keep this market going for up to two years.
“This market was a long time in coming,” said Rowena Contrades Pagan of the Ho‘omana Thrift Store. “We talked about it, and talked about it, for maybe 10 years. Now, it’s here, and it will be here every Wednesday from 2 to 5 p.m.”
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Dennis Fujimoto, staff writer and photographer, can be reached at 245-0453 or dfujimoto@thegardenisland.com.
