Sustainable molokai (SM) is seeking funding to do the background work to build a food hub and food bank facility to support the needs of molokai's local food system

Sustainable Molokai (SM) received a $259,890 Project Grant award from the US Department of Agriculture Agricultural Marketing Service under the Farmers Market and Local Food Promotion Program (FMLFPP) to conduct planning activities for a dedicated food hub and food bank facility on Molokai Island, Hawaii from September 2021 through September 2023. The award will support SM to complete a needs assessment, feasibility study, site assessment, conceptual design, and architectural design for the proposed facility. As the only island in Hawaii without dedicated food hub and food bank infrastructure, the planned facility aims to support local farmers and value-added food producers, provide food access to local consumers and those in need, and foster new food business enterprises on Molokai Island.

Almost every island in hawai'i has dedicated food hub and food bank facilities; molokai does not-instead, elements of our food hub activities operate out of multiple locations in association with smaller facilities owned by others and with limitations on our access. Since 2019,SM has produced new farmers and producers through its farmer training programs, which has increased food production through our food hub and food bank activities. With the impact of the pandemic, more of our residents rely on food bank distributions-as do our food producers as a secondary sales channel for excess products. For the last five years, SM has considered a dedicated food hub facility, but only now sees the volume of demand, production, and distribution that warrants active planning to that goal. Therefore, this project aims to complete a needs assessment, feasibility study, site assessment, conceptual design and programming, and architectural design for a dedicated facility. This facility intends to support local farmers, value-added producers, local consumers, those in need, and creation of new food business enterprises. SM's connections to the hawai'i good food alliance and hawai'i food hub HUI will also play a role in securing funding for the eventual construction of the facility as both organizations are working to raise money to fund food hubs around the state.