Age-Friendly Honolulu
Age-Friendly Honolulu changes mindsets about aging by empowering kūpuna, promoting intergenerational engagement, and supporting accessibility and inclusion for all. It is a public/private initiative, collaborating with both city departments and community organizations, and member of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Global Network of Age-Friendly Cities and AARP National’s Network of Age-Friendly Communities. AFH strives to support healthy aging and opportunities for people of all ages to engage and participate in community activities that contribute to one’s health.
Choose Healthy Now
The Hawaiʻi State Department of Health (HDOH) designed and implemented the statewide Choose Healthy Now program geared to address retail venues in rural areas and near Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs). The goal is to improve access to and promote healthier food options through product placement, increased availability, improved pricing and suggestive labeling of healthier food items at participating retail venues. Venues include 7-11 Hawaiʻi Stores, Aloha Island Mart, Queen’s Medical Center, and Mahalo Express.
HIPHI through the efforts of its Healthy Eating + Active Living (HEAL) coordinators support the program statewide and work in partnership with HDOH to support retailers interested in the planning and implementation of the health promotion program.
DA BUX Double Up Food Bucks
(managed by The Food Basket)
In 2019 the Obesity Prevention Task Force held the Double Up Food Bucks program as a legislative priority which would increase purchasing power for SNAP eligible individuals and families. Double Up Food Bucks program, which provides a dollar-for-dollar match of up to $10 per visit, per day, to SNAP beneficiaries who purchase locally-grown fruits and vegetables at participating farmers markets, grocery stores, and community-supported agriculture projects. Modeled after the national program designed by the Fair Food Network and pilot-tested on Hawaiʻi island, the incentive program expands access to healthy food for low-income residents and supports local farmers.
“DA BUX Double Up Food Bucks” is a statewide program administered by The Food Basket in partnership with the Hawaiʻi Good Food Alliance. The program expanded statewide which puts healthier food on the tables of low-income families, provides support to local farmers, and allows dollars to stay in our local communities.
Hawaiʻi Farm to School Hui
Hawaiʻi Farm to School Hui (Hui) is a statewide network comprising five Island Networks and nearly fifty community-based organizations and public agencies with a collective mission to strengthen Hawaii’s farm to school movement. The Hui (“partnership” in Hawaiian) formed in 2010 and became a program of HIPHI in 2017. Farm to school programs involve school gardens and on-campus farms, experiential education and curricular integration, and school food improvements through local food procurement to enhance the total well-being of students, families, schools, and community food systems. The Hui leverages public and private funds to build capacity at the state, regional, and local levels, develop and share resources, provide professional development, and engage in policy development and advocacy. Visit our webpage for Hui members on each island.
Hawaiʻi Youth Food Council
Founded in 2019 and launched in February 2020, the Hawaiʻi Youth Food Council (HYFC) is a group of motivated students from public, charter, and independent high schools from across the State of Hawaiʻi. HYFC is a program of the Hawaiʻi Farm to School Hui and Hawaiʻi Public Health Institute. HYFC’s mission is to engage youth in policy and systems change efforts that result in a just and equitable local food system for a healthier Hawaiʻi. HYFC envisions a Hawaiʻi where youth are engaged and empowered in creating healthy, local food systems that instill a sense of place and purpose for all people in connection with the ‘āina.
Kūpuna Food Security Coalition
The Kūpuna Food Security Coalition was formed to address the immediate and urgent food needs of Oahu’s kūpuna who were facing empty grocery shelves and fearing to venture outside their homes during the outbreak. The Coalition was composed of public and private sector groups, food providers, funders, University of Hawaiʻi and businesses, and led by the Honolulu Elderly Affairs Division who was being inundated by calls for help. Within a few weeks after the COVID outbreak, massive feeding and food distributions were systematically organized and coordinated by the Coalition to serve kūpuna in need. Work has continued for over 8 months and resulted in over 1.2 million meals, serving about 8,000 kūpuna each week. The KFSC is comprised of over 40 agencies and led by HIPHI.
Maui Nui Food Alliance
The Maui Nui Food Alliance is a cross-sector collaborative dedicated to a resilient and healthy food future for the islands of Maui Nui – the islands of Maui, Molokai, and Lānaʻi. The Maui Nui Food Alliance works to cultivate respectful relationships that foster compassion, justice and trust. The Maui Nui Food Alliance works to find a collective way forward for Maui Nui’s food systems that are culturally grounded, ethically guided and connected to place.
- Promote a culture of health. We work to ensure Maui Nui residents have access to local food options and opportunities to build habits that contribute to their health and the health of our islands.
- Plan for our food future. We gather information, data, analyses, and input to ensure Maui County has plans in place for actions to grow our local food production and consumption
- Advocate for impact. We band together to amplify our voice and influence policies and structures that support a strong and healthy local food system.
Physical Activity and Nutrition (PAN) Plan
HIPHI works towards ensuring that its strategies to address Healthy Eating + Active Living in Hawaiʻi are in alignment with the goals within the Healthy Hawaiʻi Strategic 2030 Plan and PAN Plan. Local coalition efforts intersect with statewide initiatives to create health and wellbeing throughout Hawaiʻi.
Transforming Hawaii’s Food System Together Initiative
HIPHI serves as the “backbone” organization for this collaborative statewide project by coordinating, facilitating and convening key activities. The Transforming Hawaii’s Food System Together Initiative is working towards lasting changes to Hawaii’s current food system which involves all of its functioning sectors, including producers, processing/delivery/transportation, marketing, consumers/purchasing, and waste management. This investment in Hawaii’s community-based food system includes strategies to change the agricultural economy that integrates sustainable economic development, climate change resilience and biocultural restoration with community health.
- Design, coordinate and deliver an Integrated State Food Policy Framework that will guide the development of a Food System Resilience and Equity Strategy inclusive of indigenous and community producer perspectives.
- Inform the statewide planning process with 4 key knowledge products: i) Food Systems system map; ii) Vulnerability Assessment, iii) Review of Policy; and, iv) Social Network Analysis
- Build state capacity to purchase local food for schools, hospitals and jails and other large scale purchase institutions, by conducting an assessment of opportunity, sharing best practices, weaving farm to institution in project activities, and vetting the readiness for large scale purchasers to adopt the Center for Good Food Purchasing model.
- Statewide food systems project coordination, communications, and convening Advisory Committee quarterly
