Now in its second year, Pacific Inno’s Fire Awards recognize excellence in tech and innovation — including areas like food and energy independence. This includes both startups and longstanding businesses that are innovating in new ways.
The winners were chosen from a mix of nominations from the community and the PBN editorial team. This year, the awards recognize 16 businesses across four categories: energy; food and agriculture; technology, science and data; and workplace. Each category also includes one company that’s designated as the “Blazer” — the top honoree as determined by the PBN editorial team based on information provided in the nomination, growth potential and recent accomplishments.
PBN asked each of the honorees about recent funding success, as well as what they are the most excited about in their business right now. Plus, honorees also share their insights on how Hawaii can create a more robust tech sector.
Below are the honorees in the food and agriculture category. Click here for the energy category, here for technology, science and data, and here for workplace.
"BLAZER"
Wahiawa Value-Added Product Development Center
Chris Bailey, manager
Sen. Donavan Dela Cruz, supporter
A project of the state and Leeward Community College, the Wahiawa Value-Added Product Development Center aims to bolster agricultural entrepreneurship. Featuring production kitchens and state-of-the-art equipment, the center will serve as an educational hub for food innovation and will also be available to local businesses. Bailey said they're targeting an opening date of this fall.
Tell us about your most recent funding success.
Dela Cruz: In addition to the over $21 million in funds for the facility, staff positions for Leeward Community College and the high-pressure processing machine for testing and validation, this past session, I budgeted $578,240 for FY24 and FY25 for the University of Hawaii Community Colleges to provide students with non-credit courses, certificates and credentials required or highly desired by the food and business industry.
What about your business excites you the most right now?
Bailey: I am excited and inspired by the fact we are building infrastructure that has the potential to be world-class, will spark possibilities for our students, and will support synergies across the fields of culinary, agriculture and entrepreneurship in creating a more resilient statewide value-added ecosystem.
Dela Cruz: The education, training, and incubation of new and novel made-in-Hawaii products generated in this facility will be a game changer for Hawaii. The product development will be a catalyst and significant contributor to the increase of agriculture production and food security for our state, while elevating and amplifying small business product innovation and scaling new opportunities for businesses to expand their product lines for export.
What is one thing you think we need as a state to cultivate a robust tech and innovation sector?
Bailey: Public- and private-sector partnerships to train service providers and facilitate wider access to startup resources. Also incentivizing employers to reconsider degree requirements and look toward more candidates with two-year degrees or other certifications of skills.
Dela Cruz: We need to develop more of these Value-Add Product Development Centers across the state. The WVAPDC will serve as the template for the other islands, with the end goal of creating a statewide Food Innovation Network comprised of product development centers at various University of Hawaii Community Colleges. These product development centers will house the latest technology, training, and resources for entrepreneurs to research and develop food innovations that are unique to Hawaii. … I believe many of the products that will come from the WVAPDC will be sought after and be in high demand by consumers here at home and around the world.
Farm Link Hawaii
Rob Barreca, founder and CTO
Farm Link Hawaii is an online marketplace that provides Oahu-wide home delivery of fresh food sourced from local farmers, ranchers, and food makers. It sources food from more than 150 partners, and delivers directly to homes and businesses. Barreca founded the organization in 2015, and last year, it reported a record annual revenue of $2 million. This year, the company is on track to surpass $3 million.
Tell us about your most recent funding success. Farm Link Hawaii was recently awarded a USDA grant to increase the production and sale of local meat. We buy whole animals from ranchers across the state and do much of the processing at our food hub in Kalihi. This funding is helping us expand our meat selection so you can order even more local pork, beef, lamb, venison, fish, and more, all conveniently delivered to your door.
What about your business excites you the most right now? I'm most excited about the team we're assembling to work on our mission to strengthen our state's food system. The work we do at Farm Link Hawaii is complex and challenging — there's a reason the big corporate grocery stores have very little local product on their shelves. So the people who come to work at Farm Link are passionate about making positive change in their community, even if it's tough. I'm encouraged by the fact that the quality of people on our team gets better and better every year.
What is one thing you think we need as a state to cultivate a robust tech and innovation sector? A more robust and innovative funding sector! There is so much entrepreneurial talent in Hawaii, but we've externalized so much of our economy over the past century that the cost of living and doing business here is very high. Reversing that inertia requires a similar magnitude of investment and investors who prioritize social impact. The good news is that there are organizations like Hawaii Investment Ready, Kamehameha Schools, Elemental Excelerator, and Ulupono Initiative that are shifting the investment landscape to spur more innovation in the state.
Savio Group of Cos.
Peter Savio, president and CEO
Real estate developer Peter Savio has had a decades-long career focused on creating affordable housing in Hawaii. More recently, he has turned his attention to providing farmers with affordable agricultural land at below market rates — and has four projects centered around that goal. He also has a solar project in the works that’s designed for long-term community ownership.
What about your business excites you the most right now? Knowing that we are helping our local farmers and that their success will bring stability and independence to our food supply. We are helping to create value and opportunity. Our solar condos are reducing the cost of living to tenants and will make it easier for them to live in Hawaii. We are making a difference.
What is one thing you think we need as a state to cultivate a robust tech and innovation sector? We need to solve our housing crisis. With a little imagination, we can reduce our cost of living and reduce the cost of housing. A stable community will bring stability and innovation. The solution to housing is innovation. What we have done for 60 years has failed and we need to try something new. Building more housing will not work. Building more rental units is the worst thing to do. Our problem is outside demand. Real estate should be tied to wages. You build for people who work in the community. In Hawaii, we build for what off-island buyers will pay to move to Hawaii. Keeping affordable housing is the trick. Since 1960, we have built about 400,000 affordable units, but today they are not affordable.
The Pantry by Feeding Hawaii Together
Jennine Sullivan, executive director
This local food pantry provides nutritious, fresh food to those experiencing food insecurity, and it recently developed an app to allow clients to order online. The Pantry said that the app has enabled the organization to reduce food waste, expand its partnerships with food providers, and serve more clients.
Tell us about your most recent funding success. We at The Pantry by Feeding Hawaii Together are the largest e-commerce food distributor in Hawaii. Of the roughly 185,000 pounds of food that we distribute every month, about half of that is fresh, frozen, or refrigerated. Our industrial sized walk-in refrigerator and freezer allow us to hold palettes of frozen proteins, eggs, dairy products, fresh local produce, etc. Due to wear and tear, we knew we’d be in for some big repairs this summer of 2023. After getting a few quotes, we were faced with a need to raise $350,000 to maintain these vital pieces of equipment. Through a lot of kindness, networking, and generosity from our community, we are thrilled to have closed the financial gap and will be working on this large capital project over the next couple months. It’s been truly humbling to see so many different organizations giving to this emergent need, and we are deeply touched by the outpouring of love.
What about your business excites you the most right now? As we look ahead, we are both saddened by the fact that our client base continues to grow and hopeful for the streamlining of our tools to continue improving our processes. Due to the fact we have a custom-built online portal for shopping, we can utilize the feedback from our clients to optimize the user experience with accessibility and equity always top of mind.
What is one thing you think we need as a state to cultivate a robust tech and innovation sector? Something we’d love to see happen in our state is closer collaboration between organizations like ours that can utilize technology to better serve our communities, and the businesses that have and understand the implementation of these tools. There are so many innovative options out there, so if our teams could connect with those that have the knowledge, we could use the pre-existing technology to solve some of the biggest issues facing our island ohana.
