Rooted in Paradise: Oahu’s Rise as a Hub for Food Innovation and Sovereignty
Alicia Higa, Chief Health Equity Officer at Waianae Coast Comprehensive Health Center on O’ahu.
Photo Credit: Feeding America
By Andi Nank, Senior Director, Communications & Donor Engagement at Fair Food Network
Like it or not, we all depend on supply chains — from the food we buy to household items we use and medications we take to stay healthy. When supply chains are disrupted, as they were during the COVID pandemic, it’s easy to let panic set in. Produce sections and store shelves once fully stocked are empty, and finding what you need may mean a long wait. For communities in the continental U.S., driving to another store in another town to find what you need could be an option. For island states like Hawai’i, the solution is not as simple.
In Hawai’i, an analysis done as part of the state’s Aloha+ Challenge shows that Hawai’i has an overall food self-sufficiency ratio (SSR) — representing the percentage of food consumed and produced domestically — of 15.7%. It’s overall food import dependency ratio (IDR) of 102.5% is up to three times the IDR in the mainland United States, which is relatively self-sufficient in food production. When the majority of supplies residents depend on are arriving by ocean barge, what happens if there is a disruption to these deliveries? And if the barge doesn’t come, how long will existing supplies sustain communities?
This question weighs heavily on Alicia Higa’s mind. Higa is the Chief Health Equity Officer at Wai’anae Coast Comprehensive Health Center and Executive Director at ‘Elepaio Social Services. The Wai’anae community has only one road in and out of town and is about an hour’s drive from the capital city of Honolulu along the western, mountainous coast of O’ahu. Its terrain is like that of Lahaina, Maui, which suffered severe supply chain disruptions in August 2023 due to the devastating damage of a massive fire on its ranches, farms, and native vegetation.
O’ahu Illustrative Map. Photo Credit: Shaka Guide
In addition to the vulnerability of its location, the Wai’anae neighborhood where Higa was born and raised is considered a food desert. A 40-minute ride from the high-priced restaurants and beautiful hotels in Honolulu, the Waianae neighborhood’s main road is dotted with fast food restaurants every 800 feet and a conspicuous absence of grocery stores or other healthy food retail. In recent years, fruits and vegetables grown in nearby communities were mostly sold to restaurants in tourist areas and rarely reached the dinner tables of the people working at the tourist businesses. For those aspiring to eat healthy food, the barriers were numerous and seemingly insurmountable. It’s a public health concern that Higa and her team at the health center are addressing head on.
For Higa, strengthening the local food system is a major building block to both improving nutrition security and making her community and state more resilient. Higa doesn’t look at things with a deficit lens. The recent COVID pandemic offered a glimpse into what was possible when she and others striving for resiliency focus instead on what their communities already have in place.
In 2020, when tourism slowed, local farmers needed new ways to sell their produce. At the same time, disrupted supply chains and existing structural barriers made it difficult for community members to access fresh, affordable foods grown nearby. Higa’s team at ‘Elepaio Social Services increased direct purchases of food from local farmers and expanded produce prescription programs, a food subscription program, and food pantries for children, or keiki, and older adults, kupuna.
Her team was able to infuse $1.7 million into Waianae’s local food system last year through local food purchasing. As a result, an additional $4 million circulated in the local economy, helping farmers to grow their businesses and support community wealth by providing their communities with affordable, culturally appropriate, and healthy food.
Higa shared that 70% of the people participating in at ‘Elepaio Social Services’ food pantry are kupuna (people 62 years of age and older) and according to the Hawaii Food Bank, one in three households in Hawai’i is food insecure. Taro root, or kalo as it’s called by Hawaiians, is a staple of a traditional Hawaiian diet. Poi, a porridge, is made from kalo. Higa recalls the kupuna in line for food distribution during the pandemic were in tears when poi — a food not widely available in their community anymore due to the reduction in taro production since colonization — was included in food boxes. For the kupuna, it was deeply meaningful to reconnect with foods that are part of their land, history, and community and can nourish and heal beyond mere sustenance.
What began as a necessity has evolved into a long-term solution. Higa’s team is now one of the island’s leading buyers of locally grown food. Her organizations have made strengthening the local food system central to their mission to improve healthy food access and community health in the Wai’anae area. ‘Elepaio Social Services is planning an ambitious new food campus and nursery at its health center and they continue to support the restoration of kalo (taro) and niu (coconut) farming at Ka’ala Farms in the nearby valley. They also run four produce prescription programs, funded by the USDA’s Gus Schumacher Nutrition Incentive Program (GusNIP), which help SNAP (formerly known as food stamps) participants bring home more healthy food by increasing their fruit and vegetable purchases. Higa’s team also runs the Da Bux program at their local farmers’ market. Da Bux is a GusNIP-funded nutrition incentive program, administered by The Food Basket, found in farmers markets and grocery stores across many of the Hawaiian Islands.
And it’s not just in Wai’anae that local Hawaiians are taking their food systems into their own hands. A key part of health and wellness programs in Hawai’i is helping Hawaiians and Pacific Rim communities reconnect with traditional foods, healing practices, and cultural traditions. Since the pandemic, the local food system has begun to morph in O’ahu. Other communities joined Wai’anae in supporting the growing, distribution, and selling of local food to local communities. About 30 minutes east of Wai’anae, in a neighborhood of Honolulu called Kalihi, Kōkua Kalihi Valley Comprehensive Family Services (KKV) programming is working to reconnect people to healthcare, food, land, and culture that facilitate holistic healing and wellness. In Kalihi, KKV works with many Native Hawaiians and a large Micronesian community, and the staff is on a first-name basis with many of its community members. Their comprehensive health center is located a few blocks from two high-rise residential towers providing housing for many multi-generational families in the area. Proximity to food and healthcare is key in this area, as most residents don’t drive and are dependent on the public bus system. KKV aims to build a community garden next to the towers.
In the meantime, KKV stewards the Ho’oulu ‘Āina farm, a quick bus ride away, nestled within nearly 100 acres of state land and surrounded by lush gardens, dense forests, and towering mountain peaks. Once slated for a luxury community development, this land is now preserved as state property, teeming with native plants, herbs, and diverse vegetation from Hawai’i and KKV team invites people of all ages to Ho’oulu ‘Āina farm to nurture, harvest, and reconnect with land significant to native Hawaiians. Their immersive healing approach blends past, present, and future, combining the best of Western medicine with traditional practices that center the land, food, and traditions of Hawai’i’s people.
KKV’s produce prescription project, supported by GusNIP, helps ensure that many Kalihi residents have access to affordable, locally grown fruits and vegetables. Efforts in the pending farm bill to expand GusNIP-funded projects like KKV’s produce prescriptions will allow more communities in Hawai’i and across the country to strengthen their ability to feed themselves.
While Wai’anae and Kalihi are two communities innovating and working to grow community health and resilience on their island, the opportunities to connect people, farmers, and local food systems are echoed in communities across the country. Says Higa: “When we are intentional with the way we are spending money in the community, it brings multi-win solutions for families, farmers, and local economies.”
Kōkua Kalihi Valley Comprehensive Family Services’ mobile food truck.
Produce sold at Kakua Kalihi Valley Comprehensive Family Services community market.
Watch our recent virtual roundtable about the work behind the resilient food systems on O’ahu and beyond.
