THE LAST WORD
HFIA BOARD GATHERS TO SET A PATH FORWARD
BY LAUREN ZIRBEL
also asked for information about new initia- tives and products as well as data and in- sights. We're incorporating these priorities into the content we share in the Weekly Up- date and Hawaii Food Industry Magazine. For Industry and Community Relations members requested outreach to youth to help show the value of food industry jobs. We partnered with ClimbHI for the Made in Hawaii Festival and are planning a job fair for 2024. Local food is another priority for members in this area and we're working on several initiatives including a goal oriented panel discussion for the 2024 Convention. During the 2023 Convention we con- ducted a survey to gather information on legislative priorities for the 2024 Session. The top 3 priorities selected were: • Food Affordability • Workforce Development • Food Production and Agriculture At this year’s Convention we also launched the Hawaii Food Industry Magazine, with new live online content. The first online sto- ries have received several hundred views, and readers have been clicking through to the members mentioned in the stories. One of our biggest successes this year was the Made in Hawaiʻi Festival. The 2024 Festival was back indoors at the Hawaiʻi Convention Center. We were able to host over 400 vendors booths and welcome close to 50,000 visitors! The Festival was profitable for HFIA and vendors reported millions in sales. The Festival itself was able to raise $58,193.87 for the Maui Strong Fund through ticket and t-shirt sales, and many vendors also made substantial donations.
This past October HFIA’s Board of Direc- tors attended the Association’s first ever Board Retreat. Over several hours at the Honolulu Country Club the Board Members and proxies looked at the progress the As- sociation has made over the last two years and worked with consultant Jeff Berlin to This Board Retreat was a continuation of work started during HFIA’s 2022 Conven- tion. At the 2022 Annual Membership Meet- ing HFIA took several steps to move our Association forward and plan for the future. A New Vision, Mission, and Values State- ment was approved. We also conducted an interactive session to get information from members about their priorities in the areas of Advocacy, Networking, Education, and Industry and Community Relations. In the area of Advocacy our members’ priorities were used to create our legis- lative platform for the 2023 Legislative Session. HFIA proactively advocated for legislation in these areas and worked with other stakeholders to build coalitions and exert positive influence inside and outside the legislature. set a course for the future of HFIA. THE WORK WE’VE DONE SO FAR For Networking members requested an app, which we now have. The app also in- cludes a live searchable member directory which is exclusively available to Members. During the session participants also noted the importance of high value networking events, we had a number of very successful events in 2023. In regards to Education members re- quested more web resources, which we've added to the website and app. Members
SETTING A COURSE FOR THE FUTURE To enable HFIA leadership to set a course for how the Association can continue to work towards it’s mission, we posed a series of questions to the attendees. The first was, What are the biggest emerging trends and future challenges for the food industry? • Workforce changes: - Chronic understaffing due to lack of workforce. • Decreasing consumer spending: - More e-commerce coupled with increased competition. • Security overall: - Food security - Cyber security - Safety of employees and customers - Increasing crime. • Impacts of climate change, war and the cost of crude oil. • Supply Chain Issues. • Food affordability. What can HFIA do to help members adapt to these trends and challenges? • Present subject matter experts on: AI (Artificial Intelligence), industry trends, food security, supply chain resilience, and increasing the availability of locally grown and manufactured products. • Workforce: Work with local youth to educate them about opportunities for career growth in the food industry. • Promote member to member benefit and knowledge sharing. • Legislation: Engage members to proactively advocate for improvements in policy that impact food security and business sustainability/viability. • Produce an event to educate members about how AI tools can be used to ease workforce shortages. The group then broke apart into HFIA’s four committees to brainstorm how these Com- mittees could proactively work to address these issues. The feedback from this session will help inform our Legislative platform and guide our committees going forward. continued on page 26
24 | HAWAII FOOD INDUSTRY MAGAZINE | WINTER 2023–2024
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