Ari (she/her) is the food justice program coordinator. In collaboration with Aileen Suzara, she is committed to strengthening equitable access to good, healthy, culturally appropriate food. In addition to providing general support to the food justice program, Ari works to identify opportunities and needs that inform food justice priority areas and support grantee partners. She first joined the team in 2021 as a food security Hawaiʻi intern. In 2022, she returned as a Hawai‘i food sovereignty special project intern. In her current role, she is motivated to deepen relationships between land, community, and culture.
Ari is a third-generation Indian and comes from a lineage of food practitioners. That lineage, as well as her upbringing on a farm in the ahupua‘a of Hōlualoa on Moku o Keawe (Hawai‘i Island), inspired her to pursue a career supporting all workers across the food chain.
Prior to joining Stupski, Ari worked with stakeholders across the food system, ranging from ‘Aina Pono, the Hawai‘i lieutenant governor’s farm-to-school pilot, to distributing produce islandwide with a food hub. In a transformative role, Ari connected Hawaiʻi Island farmers displaced by lava flows with the technical assistance they needed to rebuild. Like many members of her own family, those farmers had dedicated their lives to growing food for the community. Seeing it taken away in an instant formed her understanding of the emotional component of this work.
Ari holds a Bachelor of Arts from Sarah Lawrence College with concentrations in food systems and art. She is currently pursuing her Master of Food and Agriculture Law and Policy at Vermont Law and Graduate School. Ari lives in Ka‘awaloa on Moku o Keawe, where she enjoys spending time outdoors resting as a form of resistance.