The Maui Hub food hub was launched in April as a proactive response to the interruption of business as usual. In a climate of many unknowns, the food hub was viewed as a means of providing direct access to farm fresh products while maximizing value for both farmers and consumers.
The long talked about advantages of and need for a food hub, as executed by the Maui Hub team, has been embraced by the community and has now grown through the early steep learning curve, and through many obstacles, to become a model of collaborative cooperation - and a beacon of community service now serving over 240 households each week.
In just 7 short months the hub has:
1. Been awarded startup funding and grants from individual donors, non-profit foundations, and Maui County (when we were under the fiscal sponsorship of Hawaii Farmers Union Foundation).
2. Onboarded over 90 farmers and value-added producers in which an average of 30 producers are featured in the MauiHub.org store each week representing over 275 local products.
3. Expanded pickup sites to 5 easily accessible locations: Central, Kihei, Upcountry, Lahaina and Haiku
4. Qualified to provide our services to the food insecure via the USDA’s SNAP-EBT program and the Da Bux (double up food bucks) program.
5. Attained 501c3 non-profit status in less than 5 months.
The key to food hub viability involves the cooperative collaboration of three components. 1) Customers choosing local. 2) Farmers paid parity for their labors, and 3) supplemental funding via Government and Private resources. There’s a saying that is true for most industries: “Good. Fast. Cheap. Pick two.”
[see attached - graphic inserted here]
Providing local, fresh produce and value-added products to Maui families at an affordable price while also overcoming the many financial hurdles faced by local producers requires that all three work together.
Without the support of grants and donations from public and private stakeholders, fresh, local produce and value-added products are not affordable or sustainable.
Food hubs take on a marketing and fulfillment role for farmers so that they have more predictable markets and more time to increase their capacity for production.
The great advantage of an outside threat to our local food supply lines has been this opportunity to activate our political will and draw the volunteer resources needed to further our collective goal of local food sovereignty and safety. Maui Hub was very fortunate to have attracted early stage support from several sources, including Maui County, along with coalescing a team with the complimentary skills needed to launch and sustain such an operation.
To date, Maui Hub has…
• Fulfilled over 4600 orders averaging $50 per order at an average markup of just 27.15%.
• Paid over $180,000 to local farmers and producers
• Paid over $65,000 in local labor costs
• Leveraged our Give-A-Gift-To-A-Family program to channel $6,500 in donations to Maui’s food insecure families, including kupuna, the American Heart Association and homeless organizations.
• Established a newsletter/communications platform subscribed by 1500+ registrants.
In conclusion, customer feedback is extremely enthusiastic and the overall will being expressed by the community is to make Maui Hub a permanent resource. We also look forward to collaborating with food hubs throughout the state and especially here in Maui County.
Our next phase involves a focused board development strategy, further expansion of our local product offerings, home delivery and collaborating with our current operations partner, Sunfresh in Kahului, until they can no longer house the scale of product we are distributing each week.
Mahalo,
Keith Ranney
Manager | Customer Service
MauiHub.org (Farm to Family, Direct)
Email: info@mauihub.org
Ph/Msg: (808) 276-1366
Aloha Maui County Council,
The Maui Hub food hub was launched in April as a proactive response to the interruption of business as usual. In a climate of many unknowns, the food hub was viewed as a means of providing direct access to farm fresh products while maximizing value for both farmers and consumers.
The long talked about advantages of and need for a food hub, as executed by the Maui Hub team, has been embraced by the community and has now grown through the early steep learning curve, and through many obstacles, to become a model of collaborative cooperation - and a beacon of community service now serving over 240 households each week.
In just 7 short months the hub has:
1. Been awarded startup funding and grants from individual donors, non-profit foundations, and Maui County (when we were under the fiscal sponsorship of Hawaii Farmers Union Foundation).
2. Onboarded over 90 farmers and value-added producers in which an average of 30 producers are featured in the MauiHub.org store each week representing over 275 local products.
3. Expanded pickup sites to 5 easily accessible locations: Central, Kihei, Upcountry, Lahaina and Haiku
4. Qualified to provide our services to the food insecure via the USDA’s SNAP-EBT program and the Da Bux (double up food bucks) program.
5. Attained 501c3 non-profit status in less than 5 months.
The key to food hub viability involves the cooperative collaboration of three components. 1) Customers choosing local. 2) Farmers paid parity for their labors, and 3) supplemental funding via Government and Private resources. There’s a saying that is true for most industries: “Good. Fast. Cheap. Pick two.”
[see attached - graphic inserted here]
Providing local, fresh produce and value-added products to Maui families at an affordable price while also overcoming the many financial hurdles faced by local producers requires that all three work together.
Without the support of grants and donations from public and private stakeholders, fresh, local produce and value-added products are not affordable or sustainable.
Food hubs take on a marketing and fulfillment role for farmers so that they have more predictable markets and more time to increase their capacity for production.
The great advantage of an outside threat to our local food supply lines has been this opportunity to activate our political will and draw the volunteer resources needed to further our collective goal of local food sovereignty and safety. Maui Hub was very fortunate to have attracted early stage support from several sources, including Maui County, along with coalescing a team with the complimentary skills needed to launch and sustain such an operation.
To date, Maui Hub has…
• Fulfilled over 4600 orders averaging $50 per order at an average markup of just 27.15%.
• Paid over $180,000 to local farmers and producers
• Paid over $65,000 in local labor costs
• Leveraged our Give-A-Gift-To-A-Family program to channel $6,500 in donations to Maui’s food insecure families, including kupuna, the American Heart Association and homeless organizations.
• Established a newsletter/communications platform subscribed by 1500+ registrants.
In conclusion, customer feedback is extremely enthusiastic and the overall will being expressed by the community is to make Maui Hub a permanent resource. We also look forward to collaborating with food hubs throughout the state and especially here in Maui County.
Our next phase involves a focused board development strategy, further expansion of our local product offerings, home delivery and collaborating with our current operations partner, Sunfresh in Kahului, until they can no longer house the scale of product we are distributing each week.
Mahalo,
Keith Ranney
Manager | Customer Service
MauiHub.org (Farm to Family, Direct)
Email: info@mauihub.org
Ph/Msg: (808) 276-1366
http://mauicounty.us/ecomment/