Trustees for the Office of Hawaiian Affairs are being asked to approve nearly $3 million in funding for nonprofits that was delayed in May amid concerns the money was not being equitably distributed.

OHA’s administration proposed giving funds from five grant programs to just eight nonprofits in May. On Wednesday, the office will instead ask the trustees to approve awards to 16 nonprofits for programs focusing on Native Hawaiian health, cultural preservation and economic development.

In a message posted on OHA’s grants website, the office says that it’s dealt with a record high number of grant applications, and that the delay was intended to ensure that funding went to “as many communities and beneficiaries as possible.”

“OHA staff and administration are working with trustees to determine how best to ensure the equitable distribution of resources to the many qualified organizations serving our Native Hawaiian community,” the message said.

Teams of at least three external evaluators scored each grant application and made recommendations to the staff on whether funding requests should be met in full, partially or not at all, according to OHA’s meeting documents.

Although more organizations are receiving funds in this round of grants, most organizations are set to receive less money than they requested. During the meeting in May, trustees suggested providing only partial funding to stretch OHA’s grant funds over more organizations.

It wasn’t clear how funding levels for each award and recipient were determined, and OHA’s grant staff did not respond to a media inquiry Monday.

One grant that appears to remain unchanged is a $200,000 award to Molokai nonprofit Ka Honua Momona International. Executive Director Tiani Pua‘a Kawaauhau-Cook said she and her staff have been anxiously awaiting news on their application since May.

“OHA is a big grant,” she said. “It took us a couple of weeks to do. And after the deadline got pushed back, we were getting nervous.”

Like all of the proposed grants, Ka Honua Momona’s application needs to win preliminary approval from OHA’s Resource Management Committee on Wednesday, and from the full board at a later date. If it can do that, the money would help to fund programs that would teach children how to grow their own food.

Keiki in the program have so far grown their own lettuce and tomatoes. Kawaauhau-Cook said they are more likely to eat vegetables they grow themselves. The nonprofit’s mission is to teach Molokai children to be less reliant on imported goods.

“We try to teach them that growing more of their own food is more likely to be sustainable,” Kawaauhau-Cook said.

Some of the grants that were delayed in May were awarded in June, when the OHA trustees approved $2.7 million in funding for 16 nonprofits.

During the last round of grants, there were no awards set aside for nonprofits that exclusively service Kauai. This time around, two nonprofits serving Kauai may get funds. 

They are Malama Kauai, which may receive a $55,000 grant to pay for a technical assistance program for local food businesses, and the Aina Alliance, which could get up to $150,000 for an indigenous health program.

Some of the grants that were delayed in May were awarded in June, when the OHA trustees approved $2.7 million in funding for 16 nonprofits.

The awards on Wednesday’s agenda represent the remaining grants that haven’t gone out yet, according to OHA’s website.

If they win approval on Wednesday, the proposals will go before the full board on Thursday.

Civil Beat’s coverage of Native Hawaiian issues and initiatives is supported by a grant from the Abigail Kawananakoa Foundation.