About Us
Our Roots
Seed Of Love was founded by Ketty Mobed in San Francisco in 2010 as an education platform for people who may not otherwise have access to sustainable gardening practices and animal care.
In 2015, SOL became Seed Of Love Hawai'i after Ketty's daughter and son-in-law, Bahar and Jayson were invited by Kumu Moke Kim to caretake Hana Kupono (HK) and bring youth education back to his beloved ʻāina.
SOL helped youth interns visit colleges in the US in exchange for spending time showing love for the animals and the ʻāina- a travel program inspired by Kumu Moke's belief in the importance of both education and travel. Over the years at HK, SOL hosted countless youth groups from Tutu and Me, to high school after-school programs; many of the trees now fruiting at HK were planted by Molokai's youth.
Seeing a great need for it, SOL assisted the Molokai Humane Society by rescuing, fostering, and finding loving homes for hundreds of dogs and cats at a critical time when Molokai was without an animal control officer. With Kumu Moke's blessing we brought something he personally loved to the farmers market as a way to raise funds for buying dog and cat food for our growing foster family (30 cats and dogs on any given day).
Kalo and Olive "Hummus" was born using kalo grown by SOL at HK, and fair trade, organic Palestinian olive oil from a farming collective in the West Bank. The community loved the "hummus" and the delicious olive oil also available at the SOL table at the farmers market.* In addition to helping SOL feed all the foster animals, nearly 500 olive trees were donated to farmers in Palestine as a way of giving back and showing solidarity. A beautiful partnership was formed between Canaan Palestine and Seed Of Love Hawai'i.
*Olive oil is available for purchase to support SOL & olive farmers
Over the years at HK, SOL helped a number of kūpuna say goodbye to their beloved pets by providing a final resting place, complete with a memorial kukui tree, in what blossomed into a kukui grove.
For two years starting in 2018, Seed Of Love taught sewing classes at SOL Wahine Women's Collective at Holomua Junction. Of the more than fifty people who learned how to sew, many went on to make countless much-needed facemasks for the community during the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic.
In February 2020, SOL hosted youth groups at Hana Kupono for what we didn't know then would be the last time. Many changes happened during the past few years, the biggest of which was saying goodbye to Kumu Moke on April 17th, 2021. With Kumu Moke's passing, SOL was in search of a new home and a new beginning was on the horizon.
Bahar and Jayson have taken a step back to start a family, and they have welcomed their beautiful sons Omid on July 16th, 2022 and Azad on September 10, 2023 into the world.
From 2021-2023, SOL's next chapter played out when Ketty met Todd and Cara and opened up a temporary SOL family farm at the Kaloko'eli Fishpond. It offered a new meeting and caring place where the community could meet and greet and learn from the SOL animals. It brought lots of smiles and lots of memories.
Please come back and find out what 2025 has in store for SOLHI on Oahu.
Hana Kupono
There is a rich history of education, culture and community service at Hana Kupono that deserves recognition. Uncle Moke Kim, an educator, cultural practitioner, and community leader blessed his ‘āina in the early '80s as a "gathering place" and gave the name Hana Kupono, which means "doing the righteous work". With this as the foundation, Kumu Kim with the help of his wife, sensei Lisa Kim, the late teacher Uncle Howard Selenik, and other Molokai educators, began to share their mana'o and knowledge with youth groups of all ages.
For over three decades, Kumu Kim dedicated his time and energy to ensure he handed down the stories, chants, ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi (Hawaiian language), native farming and cultural practices to multiple generations. Hana Kupono the aina and the program became a landmark for many Molokai youth, whether it was summer camps sleeping under the stars, or swimming in the pond on hot days, or growing kalo and other traditional crops, Hana Kupono was truly a place blessed by many community hands. There are no words that can adequately describe the impact that Hana Kupono made on Molokai.
It was with great humility and humbleness that Bahar and Jayson came to the land as caretakers. They were very much honored to be given the permission and wisdom from Kumu Kim to continue healing the land in his absence, due to his physical limitations towards the end of his life. Seed of Love became an extension of his hands both on the ‘āina as well as in the Molokai community. Each day Hana Kupono lives on in the work of SOL and is the inspiration behind new plantings, youth group visits, animal rescues, food donations, and everything in between.
Uncle Moke and Aunty Lisa's dedication to education and the aina was the foundation of HK, and along with that aina, they helped provide many crucial building blocks for everything Seed of Love has become today, teaching us how to walk the walk of aloha in all aspects of life.