CRAIG T. KOJIMA / 2016
The Waimanalo Market Co-Op sells produce from the community’s small farmers and backyard gardeners.
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After seven years as a community food hub for locally grown produce and crafts, Waimanalo Market Co-op is closing at the end of the month .
Founder and board president Kehau Padilla said it was “heartbreaking” to realize that the co-op, which actually became a nonprofit in 2016, would not recover its financial health after the second COVID-19 shutdown this fall.
“It’s been a good run for us,” she said, but a variety of setbacks besides the shutdown occurred simultaneously, contributing to a business slump.
“We started as an online kind of market, way before its time,” Padilla said. For the first couple of years, customers placed orders online and she’d go to the farms to pick up the produce. Pickup was Saturdays from a tent set up in front of Waimanalo Elementary & Intermediate School.
The co-op grew out of a project Padilla started when working on her master’s degree in social work at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. She graduated in 2009; the co-op opened in 2013 with about 100 members.
“We tried to be an incubator for entrepreneurs that wanted to see if people liked their products,” she said, “and had a few who’ve grown their wings, gone their way and got bigger.”
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The co-op is at 41-1029 Kalanianaole Highway; 690-7607. Hours through Dec. 27 are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesdays through Sundays. Closed Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.