Hawaiʻi Good Food Fund

Building self-reliant food systems in Hawaiʻi
through strategic placement of grant and concessional capital

“If we are serious about systems change, our investment approaches need to match the intention and reality of that pursuit.”

Hannant, A., Burkett, I., Fowler, E., O’Brien, T, McNeill, J., and Price, A. (2022). Design Foundations for Systems Capital.

The Hawaiʻi Good Food Fund (HGFF) will provide a suite of capital products and coordinated consulting services to improve community food security in Hawaiʻi. The approach is grounded in the belief that by strengthening relationships among food system funders, enterprises, and intermediaries we can more effectively support and capitalize growth and viability within our local agricultural and food landscapes.

Profile:

Hawai'i Good Food Fund

Anticipated launch by July 2024

Project Goals:

Project Contact:

Nicole Milne Ph.D.

Hawaiʻi Good Food Fund in Action

Through an effective and efficient network of mission-aligned lenders, grantors, and technical assistant providers, HGFF anticipates offering the following financial products and services:

Unfunded Guarantee Pool to unlock commercial and concessionary capital from federal, state, and other lending institutions
Catalytic Technical Assistance Grants to food system enterprises that support business development and capital access (e.g., branding, website development, financial planning and accounting, etc.)
Matching Grants to food system enterprises designed to leverage capital from federal, state, county, and other funders
Full Calabash Grants for operations dedicated to growing and sourcing local food to increase access to culturally appropriate, nutritious food among food insecure populations
Coordination of access to a range of other loan and equity investment products through a network of cooperating investment institutions
Coordination of client deal flow and shared due diligence among collaborating investors to increase available capital and reduce risk
Business-related technical assistance to prepare enterprises for investment in their start-up and scaling activities

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