The Hawai’i Food Hub Hui serves as backbone for about 14 food hubs in Hawai’i,  supporting about 1300 farmers, and moving around $14 million in local food from farm to fork. Which means, they are serving about 20% of Hawaii's farmers, and moving about 20% of their agriculture economy.  

Our guest Dr. Saleh Azizi runs the food hub hui as an initiative of the Hawaii Good Food Alliance, which in turn is run by our guest Harmonee Williams, who is Executive Director of The Hawai'i Good Food Alliance, a group of "community leaders who share in the production, aggregation and distribution of food to re-build thriving community food systems."

Food hub support has been an initiative of the US Dept of Agriculture since 2009. There are about  250 food hubs throughout the United States.  They are considered critical infrastructure for regional supply chain resilience, and were particularly important during the early months of the COVID pandemic, when highly globalized supply chains proved to be as attenuated and fragile as a spider web - in other words, they can hold up well enough until there's disruption.  The shorter supply chains, which we discuss in this episode, are more able to absorb shocks to the system, able to pivot and can be more nimble in matching supply and demand.  

We talk about the definition of food hubs, their  business models, their economic development role, and how they fit into the vision for Hawai’i’s food system. 

For more info: 

The Hawai'i Good Food Alliance website 

The USDA Local Food Hub Directory for food hubs throughout the US 

A Food Hub Resource Library from the Wallace Center at Winrock International 

Findings of the National Food Hub Survey by the Center for Regional Food Systems at Michigan State University 

Regional Food Hub Resource Guide (USDA, 2012) 

And for more information on South Korea's school food distribution system, mentioned in the podcast:

Gaddis, J.E., Jeon, J. "Sustainability transitions in agri-food systems: insights from South Korea’s universal free, eco-friendly school lunch program." Agric Hum Values 37, 1055–1071 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10460-020-10137-2

Credits: 

• Sound Production: Keola Iseri of the University of Hawai’i, West Oahu
• Sound editor:  Rob Pera
• Logo design:  Sue Woodard, and Waipahu High School student Reiko Quitevis
• Sound creation and theme music: Waipahu High Schools students  Caryssa Shinozawa, Landon Guzman, Syd Sausal