Maui County, which includes the islands of Maui, Molokai, and Lānaʻi, has a rich history of sustainable food production and Native Hawaiian innovation. While many of these practices continue to flourish, the county’s food system also faces challenges related to economic opportunity, biocultural restoration, ecological resilience, and public health.
Throughout 2024 and 2025, the food system planning team at New Venture Advisors had the privilege of collaborating with the Maui County Department of Agriculture and the Maui Nui Food Alliance in a comprehensive planning process to advance the food system across Maui County. This initiative reflects the steadfast commitment of many partners to creating a resilient and equitable food system for these island communities.
The Opportunity
The Maui County Department of Agriculture works to support a sustainable regional agricultural system that promotes healthy residents, ecosystems, and economies across the county. The Maui Nui Food Alliance is a cross-sector collaborative dedicated to furthering a healthy, culturally grounded, and resilient food system that supports all county residents. Recognizing the importance of inclusive community participation and data-driven decision making, the County and Alliance sought to deepen their understanding of the local food landscape and develop actionable policy recommendations.
With support from Transforming Hawai’i’s Food System Together and the Hawai’i Public Health Institute, the County and the Alliance embarked on a three-year effort to conduct a series of comprehensive food system assessments, followed by the development of the Maui County Food & Nutrition Security Plan, with expert guidance from New Venture Advisors.
Partnering with New Venture Advisors
Alignment with community priorities and values is central to the Maui County Food & Nutrition Security Plan, which emphasized community involvement throughout the entire planning process. Over 900 Maui County residents were engaged at various points to develop a vision for the local food system, share challenges and experiences with growing, raising, and accessing healthy local food, and brainstorm potential solutions.
New Venture Advisors supported this multi-year effort through:
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- Analyzing data from the Maui County Food System Assessment and Talk Story Sessions to help the planning team better understand current conditions across sectors and communities. The assessment and listening sessions identified strengths, challenges, and opportunities gathered from 600+ farmers, fishers, and hunters, as well as from food pantries, entrepreneurs, and community members facing food insecurity.
- Supporting additional community engagement through a series of key partner interviews, community surveys, and public comment periods. This allowed the planning team to develop more specific and actionable recommendations, clarify community food system priorities, and refine the Food and Nutrition Security Plan in response to community feedback.
- Developing a process to cross-reference the new Food and Nutrition Security Plan with existing food system policies and strategic plans, including the recently adopted Maui County Climate Action and Resilience Plan. This ensured the Food and Nutrition Security Plan would align with other community planning efforts and also identified opportunities for partners from other sectors to collaborate in implementing the Food and Nutrition Security Plan.
- Developing a comprehensive 5-year plan that outlines 4 central goals and nearly 130 accompanying action steps to help achieve the community’s vision for a thriving food system. Many of the action steps have identified action leads – such as local government agencies and community partners – who will lead implementation, reflecting the plan’s emphasis on actionability. The Maui County Food and Nutrition Security Plan describes the strategies local government agencies and partners can take to improve healthy food access, support cultural foodways, catalyze economic development, reduce food waste, increase sustainability and self-sufficiency, and more.
Moving Forward
The Maui County Department of Agriculture is now actively collaborating with government agencies, institutions, nonprofit organizations, businesses, and residents to realize the Food & Nutrition Security Plan. They will regularly convene action leads to address implementation barriers and also plan to publish annual reports on the plan’s progress. Their ongoing commitment to community engagement, equitable and transparent implementation, and measuring impact serves as a model for other communities striving to transform their food systems.
Photo credit: Maui County Department of Agriculture
