Growing Food, Opportunity & Community on Hawaiʻi Island
In Hilo, Hoʻōla Farms is using agriculture to help people heal, learn, grow, build livelihoods, and strengthen Hawaiʻi Island’s local food system.
Established in 2015 as Hoʻōla Veteran Services, the nonprofit serves military veterans and first responders, their families and caregivers, and the wider community through hands-on agriculture, farmer education, food access, and opportunities to connect with one another.
What began from one family’s experience of finding healing and connection through gardening has grown into something much larger: a network of programs connecting people with agriculture, beginning farmers with knowledge, local producers with markets and infrastructure, and Hawaii-grown food with the communities it can nourish.
Growing Through Agriculture
Agriculture remains at the heart of Hoʻōla Farms’ work with veterans and caregivers.
Through gardening, farm activities, education, fellowship, and community, participants have opportunities to reconnect with the land and one another while building practical skills and relationships.
Victory Gardens for Veterans brings that experience home. The program provides eligible Hawaiʻi Island veterans, active-duty military members, caregivers, and ʻohana with hands-on gardening education and the materials to begin growing food at home, including a raised garden bed, soil and amendments, and food plant starts.
The program is part of Hoʻōla’s broader Grow Together Hawaiʻi veteran wellness pathway, connecting food, farming, fellowship, and community.
Helping the Next Generation of Farmers Grow
Hoʻōla Farms also opens many of its agricultural education programs to the wider Hawaiʻi Island community.
Intro to Grow workshops provide an accessible starting point for beginning farmers and ranchers, homesteaders, aspiring agribusiness owners, veterans, and community members who want to learn more about agriculture.
For those ready to go deeper, Groundwork to Grow offers four-week courses exploring different agricultural and agribusiness topics through online learning, field days, local experts, community resources, and working farmers.
The goal extends beyond teaching individual skills.
By helping people find knowledge, mentors, resources, training opportunities, and professional relationships, Hoʻōla helps make the pathway into Hawaiʻi agriculture easier to navigate.
Hawaiʻi Farm-to-Car
Growing food is only part of a healthy local food system. Farmers also need dependable ways to reach the people who want what they grow.
Hawaiʻi Farm-to-Car, operated by Hoʻōla Farms, is an online farmers market connecting Hawaiʻi farmers and food producers directly with customers.
Shoppers can find locally grown produce alongside Hawaiʻi-produced meats, eggs, cheeses, baked goods, value-added foods, and other products, with weekly pickup options in Hilo, Keaʻau, and Pepeʻekeo.
Hoʻōla also operates a Farm Stand in Hilo, providing another way to purchase Hawaiʻi-grown and Hawaiʻi-made food.
Farmers and producers set their own prices and only harvest or prepare what they sell through the market, helping create a direct and flexible connection between local producers and customers.
Hawaiʻi Farm-to-Car accepts SNAP and DA BUX Double Up Food Bucks, helping make locally grown fruits and vegetables more accessible while keeping food dollars circulating through Hawaii’s agricultural community.
Helping Local Food Businesses Take the Next Step
For a farmer or food producer, having a good product does not always mean having the infrastructure needed to bring it to market.
The Hilo Food Hub helps fill that gap.
Its agribusiness incubator kitchen provides affordable commercial kitchen access for Hawaiʻi farmers and value-added food producers, along with cold, frozen, and dry storage.
That infrastructure can help a grower turn a harvest into a value-added product, help a small food business meet commercial production requirements, and give emerging producers access to facilities they may not yet be able to build on their own.
In this way, Hoʻōla Farms isn’t only helping people learn how to grow.
It is helping create pathways for local agriculture and food businesses to start, grow, and participate in Hawaii’s economy.
Food Is Medicine
Hoʻōla Farms also works to close another important loop in the food system:
connecting Hawaii-grown food with people who need greater access to nutritious meals.
Through its Food is Medicine program, Hoʻōla partners with farmers, healthcare providers, schools, and community organizations to provide locally grown and produced food to kūpuna, keiki, veterans, caregivers, and families with limited access to nutritious food.
The food is sourced from Hawaiʻi farmers and producers, allowing the same effort to support both sides of the relationship: families receive nourishing local food while farmers gain another market for what they grow and produce.
Programs and partnerships have included Veggies for Veterans, REACH, school food-box distribution, Same Canoe, and other community food-access efforts.
Hoʻōla reports that this work has distributed more than 59,000 pounds of locally grown produce and proteins, drawing from a network of approximately 130 Hawaiʻi farmers and producers.
It is a powerful example of what becomes possible when food access and farmer support are treated as parts of the same system.
A Stronger Local Food System Is Built Through Relationships
A veteran learns to grow food.
A beginning farmer meets an experienced producer.
A farmer gains access to training.
A harvest finds a customer through Hawaiʻi Farm-to-Car.
A food entrepreneur gains access to a commercial kitchen.
A local producer becomes part of a food-access program.
A family receives fresh Hawaiʻi-grown food.
And more of the resources circulating through that system stay here in Hawaiʻi.
That is the larger story behind Hoʻōla Farms.
Get Involved
🌱 Learn to Grow
Explore Intro to Grow workshops and Groundwork to Grow courses covering agriculture, food production, and agribusiness on Hawaiʻi Island.
🎖️ Explore Veteran & Caregiver Programs
Veterans, active-duty military members, caregivers, and ʻohana can connect with gardening, agriculture education, wellness, fellowship, scholarships, and other resources through Hoʻōla Farms.
🥬 Shop Hawaiʻi Farm-to-Car
Purchase food and products from Hawaiʻi farmers and producers through the weekly online farmers market or visit the Hilo Farm Stand.
🧑🏽🌾 Sell Through Hawaiʻi Farm-to-Car
Local farmers and producers can explore opportunities to join the market and connect their products with more Hawaiʻi Island customers.
🍴 Grow Your Food Business
Farmers and value-added producers can explore commercial kitchen and storage access through the Hilo Food Hub.
🤲 Volunteer
Volunteer opportunities provide another way to support local farmers, food distribution, and Hoʻōla Farms programs while connecting with the community.
❤️ Give
Donations help Hoʻōla Farms continue serving veterans, caregivers, farmers, food producers, and families across Hawaiʻi Island.
Hoʻōla Farms
Hilo, Hawaiʻi Island
Programs, workshops, eligibility, market locations, volunteer opportunities, and schedules may change. Please connect directly with Hoʻōla Farms for current information before participating.
Grow food. Grow opportunity. Strengthen community.
When farmers have knowledge, infrastructure, markets, and community support—and when locally grown food can reach the people who need it—Hawaii’s entire food system becomes stronger.
Mahalo to the veterans, caregivers, farmers, ranchers, food producers, educators, volunteers, partners, families, and community members carrying this work forward.
