Farmers are among the many groups directly impacted by losses in Maui’s food industry from the Aug. 8 fires. Many are looking at this as a chance to reset and reprioritize what powers the island economically.
One of the organizations working towards creating changes in Maui’s economy is the Maui Food Hub.
Autumn Ness, the board president and one of the nonprofit’s founders, said this is a powerful chance to steer away from dependency on tourism. She knows people who lost everything in the fires and are waiting for hotels to reopen so they can go back to work there.
“It's really hard to ask people that are in this situation to go have to make money by waiting on people from somewhere else. It's a different situation to ask someone, 'Hey, I can pay you a living wage to be a part of Maui's recovery. I can pay you a living wage to go help bring food from a farm to the hub in your neighborhood,'” she said.
Ness said building the local food economy is why the hub was born.
“We really want to empower people to feed each other. We want to pay you well, we want to take care of our farmers. There's an economy in taking care of your community," she said.
Maui Food Hub was launched in April 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic. It creates a market infrastructure for more than 50 local participating farmers and provides a direct connection with local consumers.
The hub handles marketing, collection and distribution so producers can focus on growing food. Consumers place their orders for local produce weekly online. Then it’s available to pick up at locations across the island or through home delivery.
The closure of many West Maui restaurants has hit farmers hard.
“I don't think a lot of people connected the dots that 'hey, if we lost all these restaurants in Lāhainā, the farmers that sold to them are going to need your help too and so if you're looking for a way to help your community right now, buying local is a big deal,'" Ness said.
For Surfing Goat Dairy in Kula, their business of more than 100 milking goats is highly dependent on visitors to the island. Owner Thomas Kafsack said two-thirds of their revenue came from West Maui restaurants.
“On the very good day since the fire, we are getting $1000 in revenue. And before the fire, was between 3 and 4,000 on average," Kafsack said.
Maui tomato farmer Joel Winicki also lost a big portion of his market to West Maui restaurants. He said now is the time to produce more food locally and market it to Hawaiʻi residents.
“This island was once 100% self-sustainable. That might seem a little far-fetched now in modern day, but we can sure do so much better than 90% of our food being shipped in. Like we should be able to cut that in half. No problem," Winicki said.
Ness said it’s powerful to realize individuals can have a huge impact through the choices they make with their wallets.
“The people of Maui have the power really, really easily to support our farmers and ranchers in the short term, and then, with that same behavior, create an economy where we don't have to keep doing this. We don't have to keep like, when we're in our most crisis times, you know, beg for the tourists to come back. We can create an entirely new economy, where we literally support each other.”
