It’s a well-established warning we’ve heard repeatedly: So much of our food comes from outside the state that we are left vulnerable. One serious storm that keeps the barges from landing, and how will we feed ourselves?

“Something’s not working when we have an island state that, depending on what you read, has 85 to 90 percent of its food shipped in,” said Carol Ignacio of Blue Zone Hawaii, who started the Food Basket, Hawaii island’s food bank, 28 years ago. “It’s a dangerous place to be.”

It’s not that we don’t grow a lot of food here. We do, on 102,807 acres, according to a 2015 report. Another 761,430 acres is in pastureland.

Hawaii’s commercial agriculture is mostly decentralized and diversified, the report said, comprising small farms scattered throughout the state. Those 2015 figures include Hawaii’s last sugar plantation on Maui, which closed in 2016, but for the most part, the landscape in that report — by the University of Hawaii at Hilo’s Spatial Data Analysis and Visualization Lab — holds true today.

While these small farms might collectively produce tons of one crop, none individually grows enough to supply a supermarket. So the market turns to a mainland grower.

Enter the food hub.

Elizabeth Cole of the Kohala Center, which focuses on food self-reliance, explains the food hub in practical terms: “There are many ways that food hubs can serve farmers. One way would be when there is a buyer for 2,000 pounds of tomatoes and no one small farmer has 2,000 pounds to sell, but five farmers together have, say, 3,000 pounds to sell. A food hub could buy those 3,000 pounds, sell 2,000 pounds to the buyer of fresh tomatoes and process the extra 1,000 pounds into a shelf-stable product.”

Since many growers in Hawaii operate on small budgets, it’s difficult for them to finance post-harvest and food-processing infrastructure that would enable them to meet new federal food safety standards and maximize profits, said Albie Miles, assistant professor in the Sustainable Community Food Systems program at the University of Hawaii at West Oahu.

“Food hubs are intended to fill key gaps in the food-value chain by supporting local producers through collaborative planning, shared infrastructure, aggregation and distribution,” he said.

Infrastructure can include space to clean, package and refrigerate or store food items; equipment to steam, freeze or otherwise process produce; and a certified commercial kitchen to make value-added products.

Without food hubs and other interventions, we could get stuck depending on imports, Miles said.

“Hubs are an important addition to help address the limitations on increasing local food production and consumption. If growers and processors have nowhere to go (to process) their products, they simply won’t exist, or their impact on the local economy will be limited.”

The USDA’s working definition of a food hub is “a centrally located facility with a business-management structure facilitating the aggregation, storage, processing, distribution and/or marketing of source-identified food products primarily from local or regional producers to strengthen their ability to satisfy wholesale, retail and institutional demand.”

This scattershot definition reflects the diversity of ways a hub can function. Since hubs are localized and respond to the specific needs of a specific community, each hub can have distinct objectives. And they’re operating all over the state.

At Kahumana Organic Farm in Waianae, for instance, the hub provides income to some 30 backyard growers and educates them on quality control and food safety. Their produce is sold at farmers markets, through a community-supported agriculture, or CSA, program and to stores and restaurants. In another model, Friends With Farms comprises 20 small farmers who collectively supply a farmers market booth and a CSA program. Hub members provide each other with labor support and plan to share costs and equipment.

Some organizations dedicated to other missions have ended up functioning as hubs. The Food Basket uses its food banking infrastructure (including storage, refrigeration and transportation) to aggregate produce from Big Island farms and distribute it on its emergency food routes throughout the 4,048 square miles of the island, said Kristin Frost Albrecht, the bank’s director of grants and compliance.

Small farmer Viola Mindrick-Wichman sells various fruit from her 2-acre farm through the Sustainable Molokai Food Hub. Not only does the hub’s online market make it easy for her to list what she has for sale, it allows her to keep her focus on what she does best: farming.

“We don’t have to worry about the overhead of marketing and shipping our products. It takes a lot of worry and hassle out of commercial farming,” she said. “The hub also keeps us up to date on stuff like modalities regarding food safety. It does a lot of legwork for us so we can focus on growing stuff.”

Maureen Datta of Adaptations, who both farms and runs a CSA, believes food security in Hawaii will increase when hubs exist in every region.

“Hubs provide a sure market, and that’s what growers need to expand production,” she said. “Hubs are interested in building community. Wholesalers don’t have the inclination or the expertise to do that.”

And developing a vibrant food network is part of community economic development, Cole said.

“We’re spending billions of dollars on imports. If we spent it in our own community, that would cycle back.”

OAHU FOOD HUB

In 2010 Matt Johnson started Oahu Fresh, a multifarm CSA. His operation has grown, and in 2015 he partnered with entrepreneur Loren Shoop to open Oahu Food Hub, a 5,000-square-foot space in Kalihi.

Growers, chefs and those making value-added products can rent shelf space, office space, dry-storage space or space in a 300-square-foot refrigerator. About a dozen small food producers rent time in a certified kitchen, and members just starting their businesses can tap Shoop’s entrepreneurial skills.

The hub can also serve as a network: If farmers brought in a surplus of mangoes, for instance, and the hub was connected with someone who made a product out of mangoes, both businesses would benefit.

Oahu Food Hub grew out of the men’s need for space as their businesses expanded.

Johnson operates Oahu Fresh on-site. Shoop owns Ulu Mana, which produces breadfruit hummus in the hub kitchen. He also uses the space to store goods from neighbor island producers, which he test-markets at Oahu farmers markets.

“We built the hub out of necessity,” Shoop said. “We needed the space for ourselves, and we thought we might as well build it big enough so others could use it as well.”

THE FOOD BASKET

Executive Director En Young sees his food bank as a cog in a network of organizations that serve the Big Island.

The food bank is plenty busy in and of itself. It moves more than 100,000 pounds of local food around the island each month through various programs, including a CSA with 150 customers, involving some 40 Big Isle farmers. It also shares its infrastructure with the larger food community. That includes processing space for a breadfruit cooperative, and retrofitting equipment and providing space to help re-establish the Sharwil avocado industry after a fruit-fly problem shut it down 20 years ago.

“Every piece of infrastructure the Food Basket owns was provided by the community, so we have an obligation to use it for the community,” he said.

The bank also partners with organizations that provide other services, such as mental health or employment services, connecting them with clients who come by for food.

This approach is especially productive when goals overlap. If a chronic-disease program counsels clients on healthful diets, for instance, the Food Basket can provide that food — and that benefits its work in the local food system.

“It’s a symbiotic relationship,” Young said.

ROOTS FOOD HUB

As part of the nonprofit Kokua Kalihi Valley, a holistic, cultural health and wellness organization, the Roots Food Hub brings native food to Kalihi’s predominantly Hawaiian, Asian and Pacific Islander population.

That means it accesses foods such as kalo, uala (sweet potato), banana, ulu (breadfruit) and much more from small organic farmers islandwide, who provide the food at modest prices for the area’s mostly low-income families.

“This encourages going back to cultural foods versus eating canned food,” said Christen Oli­veira, manager of the hub’s mobile market, which sells the food at seven sites, including schools and health, senior and community centers.

What’s not sold is cooked and served in the Roots Cafe at the Kokua Kalihi Valley Wellness Center. Scraps are fed to pigs at Ho‘oulu ‘Aina, the organization’s 100-acre nature preserve.

“Fresh — oh yes, that’s nice to have,” said Samoa-born Iunise Pomele, a resident of the Towers at Kuhio Park who shopped at the market after a recent senior exercise class. “As islanders we’re used to growing our own food. But in the high-rises there’s no place to have your own garden. If there’s no market, it’s harder to get the food we’re used to eating.”

OTHER HUBS

>> Sustainable Molokai Food Hub

Efficiency and education are the upshot of this hub’s use of technology. Farmers post what they have for sale, with pictures and prices that they set, to an online mobile market. Customers don’t just shop, they learn who grows their food and the farming techniques used. After food is harvested, hub workers aggregate, pack and distribute it.

The site allows farmers a means to grow their business, said Harmonee Williams, director of Sustainable Molokai’s food sovereignty program. “For the beginning farmer, this is a great opportunity because there’s no pressure to produce a large amount on a consistent basis. They can simply post the amounts they have available that week, and they only have to harvest what is purchased through the site.”

>> Adaptations

With more than 25 years of farming experience, owners Maureen and Tane Datta have expanded their business to run a hub for the multifarm, year-round Fresh Feast CSA, which serves 125 families. The hub also supplies schools, processors, restaurants and resorts.

The couple shares knowledge with farmers about everything from crop selection and organic pesticides to quality standards and proper packaging. The next step: a certified kitchen.

“It’s a recipe for success,” said Maureen Datta. “We’ve got the commitment of local residents and the multifarm aspect with 50 farms and small growers. It makes for a nice selection of products, and a constant income for growers as well.”

>> Local Harvest

After six years Steve Phillips now moves about 600,000 pounds of product annually on Maui for more than 100 growers. He distributes it to some 60 stores and restaurants, and sells it weekly at two farmers markets. He also makes 25 value-added products.

“The first year, I worked out of my minivan and the closet of my condo,” he recalled. “After a year, when the products started filling up my dining room and condo, my wife made me get an office and storage space.”

Four delivery vehicles, two certified kitchens and a warehouse space later, Phillips still calls his distribution work small. But he believes his efforts are helping to nurture a sustainable Maui.