Kauai Fresh: From food bank to a catalyst of food security

Abstract

As its "Kauai Fresh" food brand demonstrates, Kauai Food Bank Ohana is learning how to give its charitable activities an entrepreneurial edge. Dependency is giving way to capacity and partnerships as this organization attempts, literally, to work itself out of a job. Kauai Food Bank’s reputation has come to be built not so much on feeding the hungry, as crucial as that is, as on addressing the root causes of hunger through original and unique programming. Kauai Fresh enables the smallest backyard grower to get a foothold in the local produce market and provides him or her with an income stream that through the multiplier effect contributes to the local economy on the island of Kauai and a measure of greater food security.