COVID crisis as a catalyst to re-imagine Maui’s food system
by Autumn Rae Ness
As Maui continues to struggle with the impacts of COVID-19 related shutdowns, a new nonprofit has linked arms with Maui’s small farms to support them through the crisis, while also laying the foundation for long term food system change. Tourism shut down in March, causing reduced demand for local produce from hotels and restaurants, while crowds were showing up at big box stores, buying food shipped in from all over the world, leaving store shelves empty.
Community leaders quickly organized to connect local consumers to Maui’s farmers through the Maui Hub, an online “farmers market” where consumers can buy vegetables and other locally produced goods directly from the producer. It’s a consumer-friendly platform that also focuses on meeting the immediate needs of our small farms.
The response from the community and the farmers has been truly amazing.
From the first week of operation in April, during the height of lockdown chaos and anxiety, the Maui community stepped up to support our local farmers, and weekly sales have increased nearly every week since. The Maui Hub team focuses on making the farmers’ experience as easy as possible, by taking their delivery and paying them right away, so they can go back to the farm while we do the rest of the work to get their produce to the consumer. The Maui Hub focuses on sales, marketing and consumer education so we have more engaged and informed customers. We ask farmers what they need, and we do what we can to provide.
We are also creating jobs and entrepreneurial opportunities in an economic sector that is not dependent on tourism. We employ a packing and delivery crew, and help aspiring product entrepreneurs find gaps in the food market and connect them to farmers who grow what they need.
Maui has actually needed better infrastructure to support locally produced food for years. Without it, many farmers and producers have been largely on their own when it comes to selling and distributing their food. When individual farmers have to manage the sales, aggregation, delivery, and invoicing for their products, that means they have much less time on their farm. This has been the topic of policy discussions and farm needs assessments for years, but there was never the political will or the resources dedicated to building out a functioning food hub.
A sustainable food system depends on collaboration, farm support, and informed consumers. We can no longer expect farmers to shoulder 100% of the burden of feeding our communities. They need support. If we restructure our food system with these core values, our farmers have the tools they need to increase their food production, creating jobs and making Maui more food secure.
The future of our food system, as well as the long-term health of our people and local economy, depends on the choices we make during this pandemic, and how we turn those choices into long term systemic change.
I am so proud of the Maui Hub team, our community and our farmers for the work they put in to getting our community through the pandemic, while also keeping an eye on the horizon. Food security and a diversified economy has never been so urgent and through collaboration and values based solutions, we are moving in the right direction. Together, we are Maui strong.
To find out more about the Maui Hub, shop on our store, or list your local products for sale, please visit mauihub.org
