The Hawaiʻi Good Food Alliance is a diverse hui of individuals and organizations who share in the production, aggregation, and distribution of food, and share in the practice of mālama ʻāina to re-build thriving community food systems. We join together—with a sense of urgency—to raise community voice and support one another in the belief that each and every person in Hawai’i can share in healthy, locally produced food.

Our Good Food Pillars Are

Culturally Grounded

Culturally Grounded

Food connects to who we are—our culture, our community, and our heritage—and connects us to one another.

Food as Medicine

Health &
Medicine

Food is a foundational part of our health and well being as a society.

Equitable

Equitable

Easy access to nutritious food is a matter of fairness, equity and social justice.

Community Based

Community-
Based

We work in and with communities to develop knowledge, build capacity, facilitate autonomy and foster resiliency, which leads to community-led economic and social development. 

Mālama ʻĀina

Mālama
ʻĀina

Speaks to the reciprocal kuleana between kanaka (man) and ʻāina (land) to take care of one another. We do not own the land, but are in relationship to it.  If we take care of it, it will provide for us.

Our Measures of Success:

  • Justice, Fairness & Thriving Local Economies: Our concern is not growth for growth’s sake, rather we want to see measurable improvements in how good food is distributed fairly to all, and in ways that rectify past and current injustices with lasting solutions.
  • Strong Communities & Healthy People: We care about results that are measurable at the community level, in the form of healthy, connected, thriving individuals and families.
  • Vibrant Farms & Sustainable Ecosystems: We measure the health of our ʻāina as the most fundamental determinant of our ability to grow food that is truly good.

Our Overarching Areas of Focus include:

Nurture solidarity as an Alliance by respecting and honoring the uniqueness of each community, creating spaces for building a deep sense of aloha and trust, learning from one another and growing our shared understanding, making safe spaces for honest conversations, and being at each other’s side in times of need. Our current activities for pursuing this include:

  1. Regular communication and support to Alliance organizations
  2. Periodic retreats focused on Alliance strengthening
  3. Ongoing succession planning with an open invitation to younger representatives of founding organizations
  4. Developing a process to expand the Alliance
  5. Exploration of HGFA sponsored events focusing on issues of value to Alliance organizations

Strengthen, support, and build community food systems — systems that include the production, distribution, and consumption of good food — through coordination, gap filling, innovation, and advocacy. Our current strategies/projects for pursuing this include:

  1. DA BUX Double Up Food Bucks to increase access to fresh healthy locally produced food for lower income families
  2. Hawaiʻi Food Hub Hui to organize and support the aggregation and distribution of foods from small family farmers to local buyers, creating and expanding resilient community-based food supply chains
  3. Hawaiʻi Farmers Market Association to support the growth and viability of community-based direct-to-consumer farm marketing 
  4. Hawai’i Good Food Fund for additional capital resources to support enterprises across the food value chain that provide equitable access to quality food and stimulate community-based economic development
  5. Policy analysis that provides education about and advocacy for initiatives that advance the production, distribution, and consumption of good food
  6. Exploring a new initiative focusing on workforce development that supports the growth of community food systems and healthy families
  7. Exploring an initiative focusing on community food system resilience through the lens of disaster preparedness.

Our Founding Partners Include:

  1. The Food Basket
  2. The Kohala Center
  3. Kanaka Haʻaheo
  4. Maui Food Bank
  5. Sustʻāinable Molokai
  6. Kōkua Kalihi Valley
  7. ʻElepaio Services, Waianae Coast Comprehensive Health Center
  8. MAʻO Organic Farms
  9. Kahumana Organic Farm & Food Hub
  10. Mālama Kauaʻi