Sustainable Initiatives by Andrea Dean

On January 8th local farmers came together with local restaurant owners who wanted to buy produce for North Kohala Eat Locally Grown Day (Sat., Jan 16th). The restaurant owners initiated the Buyer’s Market because they felt that a “face to face” buyer/seller market was important for community building, that meeting in person would help create new relationships with growers, and build upon existing relationships. And it worked! Produce was sold, new relationships were made, plans for the future were discussed!


Come to North Kohala Eat Locally Grown Day on Saturday, January 16th
-Restaurants will create specials using North Kohala produce, fish, and meats, and will incorporate as much North Kohala grown food as possible into their existing menus. Menus and signage will highlight the locals foods and farmers.
-Takata’s (our local food store) will be highlighting the local food they usually carry. In addition, Marc Kinoshita (Kukuipahu Ranch) has arranged for their farm to donate locally grown produce to Takata’s for that day and proceeds from the sales will go to the North Kohala Community Resource Center.
-The Hawi Farmers Market will have a “Made in Kohala” and “Grown in Kohala” tent on that day for local farmers (homesteads and commercial farms) to come and sell. They are also having a kohala grown plant give away.
-Kava Kafe will have a closing party featuring local Kava, local food and local music.
-Sushi Rock is having Studio 54- the after, after party!


Why are we doing this?
-Create more connections between local growers and local buyers, with an eye towards growing our local, sustainable, agricultural economy.
-Raise awareness in North Kohala about eating locally grown foods- the economic, health and community benefits. To ultimately create more local consumer demand for local foods.
-Support local restaurants and markets: Bring people to North Kohala on that day and encourage residents to eat/shop locally on that day.

Restaurant/Market Participants
Bamboo
Sushi Rock
Kohala Coffee Mill
Luke’s Place
Kava Kafe
Pico’s
Fig’s Mixed Plate
Hawi Farmers Market
Takata’s

Tags: andrea dean, green business hawaii

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 12th, 2010 at 12:33 am and is filed under Food Systems and Eat Locally Grown, North Kohala Eat Locally Grown. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.