If you’re planning a feast, it helps to know beforehand what everyone will bring to the table.
And it was the latter aim attendees at the first-ever Hawaii County Food, Education, Agriculture, Solutions, Together event began working toward last week. Nearly 100 people from throughout the county, representing all facets of the island’s food community, turned out for the daylong program Thursday at the Wainaku Executive Center.
“We all have been chipping away at the same challenge,” Hawaii Food Basket executive director En Young said in his opening remarks. “The food system’s just not what we want it to be.”
Though individual efforts to improve Hawaii County’s local food system and work toward greater food self-sufficiency increased in the past several years, there had not been an opportunity for people to come together and plan for the future.
FEAST was organized by the Hawaii Island Community Food System Stakeholders group, which includes the Food Basket, Kohala Center and state Department of Health, and funded in part by the DOH and Kaiser Permanente Thrive.
Sharon Thornberry, who founded the program six years ago in Oregon and has worked with more than 80 communities in her own state as well as areas in Michigan and Washington, facilitated the event.
“The way this FEAST works is it has a built-in action plan to it,” Kristin Frost Albrecht, Food Basket director of events and public relations, told the Tribune-Herald. Frost Albrecht worked with Thornberry in Oregon on the first FEAST.
“At that one, people weren’t familiar with what a farmers market was,” she said. “It’s pretty interesting how far things have come in a short period.”
And there is more to a local food system than farmers markets — Thursday’s program also featured presentations by Jason Van Tassell of Paniolo Cattle Co., Kyle Sumner of Suisan and state Sen. Russell Ruderman, attending as a public official and founder of Island Naturals grocery.
“Everyone kept saying they had never been to something where there was such a mixed group of people involved with food,” Frost Albrecht said.
Still, many of the presenters stressed a similar theme: Tell the story behind the food. Explain how it gets to the plate.
“The stories that we have to share are critical,” Van Tassell said. “This is an exciting time to be in agriculture.”
Paniolo Cattle Co. is part of Parker Ranch, but its efforts concentrate on local grass-fed beef.
“There’s a huge demand for local product,” Van Tassell said. “There’s room for everybody … our goal is to make it a statewide operation.”
One Honaunau-based organization, the One Island sustainability program, is engaging consumers in a food challenge, asking people to double the amount of local food they purchase.
“We, as consumers, are the wave, the force that makes things happen,” said Marcy Montgomery, executive director of the One Island Sustainable Living Center. That makes building a connection between consumer and producer all the more important.
“When they (customers) come to the market they recognize the farmer,” Montgomery said. “They’re excited to buy the food because they’ve seen it grown.” Increased demand for local products leads to increased production, since farmers feel more economically secure.
That principle applies to the fishing community as well. Sumner discussed the ins and outs of Suisan’s all-local market, a perspective not often seen during food conferences.
“People assume that any (fish) is local because we’re surrounded by water,” he said, encouraging people to do their research before purchasing seafood.
During his talk, Ruderman said one of the biggest obstacles to attaining self-sufficiency is the fact farmers must import basics such as fertilizer and animal feed from the mainland.
“As long as we’re dependent on farm inputs, we’re at a disadvantage,” he said.
Still, the island has a great deal of potential in terms of developing premium brands for sale on the mainland. Ruderman cited the recent growth of the Ka‘u coffee brand in Pahala.
“Farmers have to have a money stream,” he said. “The market is there. Get it in front of people and tell the story.”
After the presentation, participants gathered in discussion groups to address five different components of the food system: economic development and value added products, farmer education and support, home production, farm-to-school programs and food access.
The stakeholders group still is reading through all of the suggestions from the brainstorming session.
“People wrote a lot, which is really exciting,” Frost Albrecht said. “That’s so good to read through.”
She particularly was heartened by the food access discussion.
“That was a huge group,” she said. “People really get that there isn’t enough quality food going out to the community. It just blows me away.”
Members of the groups will meet within the next month and a half to continue brainstorming solutions.
“Part of the exercise … is between them, they all came up with potential partners to help with each of the areas,” Frost Albrecht said.
“I think we’ve got a good group who’s going to be able to move forward and put all the pieces together,” she added.
Email Ivy Ashe at iashe@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
