The Food Basket is creating a big “agricultural innovation park” in Hilo.
Hawaii Island’s meals financial institution lately bought 24.5 acres off Ponahawai Street in Hilo from Suisan for a reduced price of $1.6 million.
The newly acquired land shall be used to create the Hawaii Island Agricultural Innovation Park, which can assist alleviate meals insecurity, elevate limitations to pursuing agriculture and reply to the present pandemic-related downturn by offering the capital wanted to create a sturdy agricultural economic system.
Selling a portion of the land and donating one other half turned a simple choice as soon as Suisan President Steve Ueda realized about The Food Basket’s plans.
“We’ve had this land for sale for a couple years, but never had a good buyer interested in purchasing,” Ueda mentioned. “The Food Basket learned about the property, and I happened to be on the board of directors. All the dots seemingly connected to make this happen.”
Ueda and Suisan determined to donate a portion of the land for the reason that targets of The Food Basket coincide with Suisan’s mission to extend the quantity of native meals producers and assist them thrive.
“We did have the opportunity to share our thoughts on the project and see that it’s a good thing for Hilo, and the property will be a perfect place for the park,” Ueda mentioned. “I think it’s great that the name of our food bank is The Food Basket, because they want to turn Hilo into the food basket of Hawaii.”
The Food Basket Executive Director Kristin Frost Albrecht visited Maui final month to tour The Maui Food Innovation Center for inspiration and concepts.
While the thought of constructing an agricultural innovation heart on Hawaii Island is just not new, current meals provide challenges helped jump-start the undertaking.
“During the pandemic, we had to source a lot of our food locally, and it was an opportunity to think about how to best support our farmers,” Frost Albrecht mentioned. “One of the biggest lessons from the pandemic is that we need to have consistent food supply on our island. We have the agricultural land to serve the entire state.”
The state imports about 90% of its meals, equating to $3 billion leaving the state annually. At this time, solely a small fraction of regionally grown agricultural merchandise are bought in mainstream retailers, in keeping with Hawaii County.
“We want to make sure agricultural businesses are viable. They need a boost,” Frost Albrecht mentioned. “They need the ability to turn products into something else and do things at a higher volume to make us food secure.”
The proposed four-component innovation park will enable The Food Basket to develop its ongoing efforts to advertise the acquisition and consumption of regionally grown meals from a strategic location on a collaborative campus.
The first element shall be a group meals heart and meals financial institution that shall be used for emergency meals warehousing, agricultural distribution, drive-thru meals entry and workplaces.
The second element is an agricultural innovation heart, which can present house, help and gear for meals manufacturing, processing and co-packing.
The second element additionally will embody agricultural land for row crops and incubator crops, in addition to a shade home, to assist packages of The Food Basket and the group.
The third element is an agricultural assist workplace for The Food Basket community members, growers, producers and members of the group.
The fourth element shall be a group heart that might bridge the hole between agricultural suppliers and the group they serve. Spaces will weave training, cultural and culinary experiences collectively.
A farmer’s market pavilion additionally shall be added to the fourth element and can accommodate as much as 50 farmer stalls with assist areas, like storage and kitchens.
The whole price is estimated at $74.3 million; nonetheless, a federal grant might fund almost half of the undertaking.
The Food Basket is one entity included within the Build Back Better Regional Challenge grant, which is being pursued by Hawaii County.
The county developed the Hawaii Island Coalition to suggest initiatives that can profit the entire of the agriculture trade on the island.
Those within the coalition embody, The Food Basket, The Hamakua Institute, The Kohala Center, Ma‘ona Community Garden, Big Island Resource Conservation and Development Council, East Hawaii Community Development Corporation, and the University of Hawaii.
The county is certainly one of 60 finalists within the first part of the Build Back Better Challenge.
Each finalist was awarded about $500,000 to additional develop their proposed initiatives earlier than submitting functions for part two.
If the county is awarded part two of the grant, they are going to obtain as much as $100 million to fund three to eight initiatives that assist the agriculture trade.
If the county is just not awarded the grant, Frost Albrecht mentioned she is assured that The Food Basket can increase sufficient cash by way of different grants and campaigns to start out creating the innovation heart.
Additionally, The Food Basket is establishing robust relationships with lenders and potential traders who assist the imaginative and prescient of this undertaking to make sure ample entry to capital and eradicate limitations that would come up because of sudden growth prices.
If the present timeline might be adopted, building might start as early as June 2023.
“We’re very excited, but it is scary to take it all on,” Frost Albrecht mentioned. “All the work will be worth it when it’s completed. The park could really make a difference for food and agriculture here.”
Email Kelsey Walling at kwalling@hawaiitribune-herald.com