Local impact investing nonprofit Hawaii Investment Ready, or HIR, has launched a new Hawaii Food Systems Accelerator program, officials with the nonprofit announced Wednesday.
The HIR Hawaii Food Systems Accelerator is made up of two complementary cohorts, including the Enterprise Cohort and the Funder Cohort. The cohorts will represent "high-potential innovators" across the food system value chain, as well as funders from government, philanthropic, and private sectors.
“Covid changed the landscape and made us rethink how we can best serve Hawaii in its urgent and necessary economic transformation,” said Keoni Lee, Hawaii Investment Ready CEO, in a statement. “Typically, accelerators aim to strengthen and scale the individual enterprises that participate in their programs, but this new approach takes it a step further to strengthen and resource the system as a whole.”
The Food Systems Accelerator starts this month and will culminate with a public pitch event this fall.
“As Hawaii becomes more aware of the need to put a stake in the ground of food security, working with Hawaii Investment Ready and our food colleagues is essential and exciting,” said Patti Chang, CEO and co-founder of Feed The Hunger Fund, in a statement. “Our participation in the accelerator will provide limitless opportunities as we are poised for a new level of growth.”
Lauren Nahme, vice president of strategy and innovation for Kamehameha Schools, added, "Kamehameha Schools believes in partners like HIR and oiwi leaders like Keoni and Lisa who put their name and careers on the line for the sake of a better Hawaii.
"The vision to align the accelerator to food systems is courageous and critical," she said. "We are excited to support this effort in the seemingly impossible food space that requires our collective ears, brains, advocacy, and capital. Pupukahi i holomua [unite to move forward]."
The new Food Systems Accelerator represents HIR’s evolution to better target systems-level challenges and opportunities. In particular, food supply chain vulnerabilities daylighted by the global Covid-19 pandemic have elevated an urgency to invest in the State’s goal to double local food production.
“The global impact investing community has embraced solving for food systems as critical to the sustainability and health of people and planet,” said Lisa Kleissner, co-founder and board chair of HIR and KL Felicitas Foundation, in a statement. “HIR’s system-level approach is a template how to build equity and resilience not only into regional food systems, but also into areas of basic community needs, such as housing, regenerative tourism, and circular economy waste management.”
