Rebuilding lives and making land productive again takes time and effort after a Cyclone event. Extreme weather conditions such as continuous inundation, increasing temperature and more frequent strong winds and storm surges have affected the livelihoods of the people on Funafuti, specifically all island communities from Nanumea to Nukulaelae residing on Funafuti. Like so many other communities on Funafuti, the community of Nui is facing diverse health, social economic and environmental issues directly and indirectly affecting the livelihoods of the people. Traditional root crops and home gardening produces have suffered causing a rise in food security issues for the Nui people who had been relying heavily on their local produces on a regular basis.
There has been a decline in health of inshore invertebrates (in terms of size, abundance and diversity, i.e., the declining inshore marine food sources), crop failure due to sea level rise and salt water intrusion, limited access to healthy local food options like (fish/coconut/pulaka/breadfruit/taro/and other marine and land food sources), declining of offshore fisheries food sources (Tuna) and low resilience of fruit crops and trees due to the impacts of climate change and disasters. These impacts come with extreme effects that we (our Nui Community) do not have the capacities to cope with these challenges. However, we should not be discouraged but to face it with courage through proper support from this Lean ? To ? Local Food project. Due to climate change impacts in the form of natural disasters it disrupts food availability.
With the establishment of the Lean-To-Local-Food (L2LF) project, it could alleviate the vulnerability of the community on food security issues. The Nui community can make themselves well prepared by reducing the risk through food preservation and storage. And with the design of the Lean-To-Local-Food facility, it will be a mechanism that could build the resilience of the Nui community to ?build back better?. The project will target community elders who are experts in local food processing and preservation. The L2LF project will substitute on the attitude of demand of the Nui people on Funafuti on purchased food products sold in shops. For this reason, the people will buy less from shops, hence their healthy lifestyles will be improved.
Local grown produces or raw products will be transported from the mainland, Nui Island to Funafuti and then following local food preservation processes. Perhaps one of the advantages of this initiative is that, the transportation of raw products will not acquire long trips within the country and thus, it reduces ?Food Miles?, by comparison of domestic shipping unlike imported foods. All imported foods are shipped from hundreds of miles away just to arrive on Funafuti, the main Capital. The more we rely on imported foods, the more fossil fuels will be burnt, releasing tons of carbon dioxide contributing to Green House Gasses emissions. With the Lean-To-Local-Food project, it could mean, reducing the Nui Community ?Food Miles? by at least ~1% to the total GHG?s atmospheric concentration, likewise it will cut back on our emissions at the local, national and international level.
The project site will be at the Lotonui Falekaupule extended onto the northern side of the existing building. The estimate area for the project facility will be 170sq meters, with 3 partitions in it. The facility will be designed to accommodate appliances for processing and preservation. It also has a storage area that should be dry and clean to at least prevent condensation contaminating the products. Dried food products should not be stored on the floor. There will be cupboards where all food products will be stored and marked on with dates. Optimum length of storage will be 18 -20months and then rotated. Project appliances such as refrigerator are in kind contributions of the Fafine Nui i Funafuti Association (FNFA).