Malama Kaua‘i, a nonprofit working to improve local food production and access on Kauai, will receive $90,000 in grants from the Kauai Office of Economic Development.

The funds will be issued in two separate grants: $50,000 to support Malama Kaua‘i’s farmers and $40,000 to support Kauai schools in piloting farm-to-school efforts.

“A hundred percent of both of those funds (will) go to our beneficiaries,” said Megan Fox, executive director of Malama Kaua‘i. “Both of those grants are going to help everybody in one way, shape or form.”

Founded in 2006, Malama Kaua‘i is the island’s first and longest-running community-based organization focused on increasing local food production and access, according to a news release. Through various programs, it focuses on resilience and sustainability while leveraging economic and workforce development efforts and partnerships in the community.

The grant supporting farmers will give them the flexibility to expand their production and lessen the risks associated with new- product trials, Fox said.

“They might want to bring a purple carrot on the market or something new like that,” she explained. “(The grant funds) will help provide them with the supplies and tools to be able to do those expansions.”

Precise plans for the $40,000 grant are still being discussed, Fox said.

“But in essence, we’ll be granting those funds in the form of free food donations for the schools so that they can start experimenting and piloting different farm-to-school recipes,” she said.

In addition to the recent grants, Malama Kaua‘i announced in October that its new Moloa‘a ‘Aina Center, now under construction, had surpassed the halfway point in its fundraising efforts.

The new center is being built in Moloaa on the island’s northeastern shore. It will be Kauai’s first food hub, and recently reached 68% of its funding, according to the news release.

The $3.2 million project will include a two-story facility with a technical assistance hub and a post- harvest processing facility with walk-in cold storage and a commercial kitchen. The space will allow Moloa‘a ‘Aina to expand its existing operations, which are currently working out of a smaller facility in Lihue, Fox said.

“We have very, very limited space, very, very limited cold storage — all those kinds of things,” Fox said.

Once completed, the new center will offer distribution and marketing guidance and services as it continues to facilitate business between farmers and buyers, the release said.

“It will greatly enhance and increase capacity to aggregate, process and store a higher volume of produce,” Fox said. “And that gives us the opportunity to buy more produce and products from our farmers.”

Malama Kaua‘i works with over 60 farmers who will also benefit from the new space by having access to facilities to store and process their products.

Until the new center is fully funded, Fox said she can’t predict when construction will be completed.

“If we got the rest of the funding tomorrow, it could be as fast as April,” she said. “If it takes longer, we might be looking at June.”

While the grant money will go directly to the beneficiaries, consumers also will reap the benefits, especially those with lower incomes, Fox said.

“We actually are the food access coordinator for Kauai through a Department of Health contract, and we are working on a food access plan for the island,” she said. “A lot of the problems we identified from folks who didn’t have access to healthy local food might have been transportation-related.”

Malama Kaua‘i has since begun offering $5 food deliveries and accepting Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and associated Double Up Food Bucks. Consumers who utilize those benefits may also receive 50% off their produce purchases.

Supporting Indigenous businesses is an important part of Malama Kaua‘i’s mission. Poi is covered under Double Up Food Bucks benefits, meaning consumers can more easily support the small businesses that produce this island food staple while increasing access to it, Fox said.

Additionally, Malama Kaua‘i’s Peep or Poultry Egg Education Project gives priority to businesses that are either Indigenous-owned or owned by people of color, she added.

Success of the organization’s various efforts to increase food resilience and sustainability will ultimately depend on the community’s commitment to supporting small, locally owned businesses in times of abundance as well as in times of scarcity, Fox said.

“That’s how we become sustainable, is supporting these small businesses and people in our community who are providing our food and who are going to be there for us in the future, whether it’s blue skies or emergency mode,” she said.

Linsey Dower covers ethnic and cultural affairs and is a corps member of Report for America, a national service organization that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues and communities.