OUR HISTORY
Hawaiʻi ʻUlu Co-op (HUC) is a farmer-owned business working to revitalize ‘ulu (breadfruit) as a viable crop and dietary staple by empowering farmers as change-makers in Hawaiʻi’s food system.
Formed in 2016 with 9 small, diversified growers on Hawaiʻi Island, HUC has grown to over 150 member-farms on four islands (Hawaiʻi Island, Maui, Oʻahu and Kauaʻi) and is now the foremost breadfruit farmer organization in Hawaiʻi. By working together, HUC farmers are able to offer consistent, high-quality ʻulu products that are delicious, versatile, local, healthy, accessible, and sustainable.
The co-op is committed to the revival of ʻulu to strengthen Hawaiʻi’s food security and to the value of mālama ʻāina – care or protection of the earth – by using environmentally responsible production methods.
Our vision is a thriving cooperative that sustains and uplifts producers, consumers, and society as a whole. Farmer owned, ‘āina grown—from our trees to your table
2016:
May
First community meeting of 15 farmers in Waimea to address the need for an ʻulu cooperative.2016:
June
9 core members meet again in Hilo and vote to incorporate the Hawaiʻi ʻUlu Producers Cooperative.2016:
2016:
August
Aggregated the first fruits from farmer-members and started to operate exclusively out of Sweet Cane Cafe. Frozen inventory stored at the Food Basket in Hilo.2016:
December
Created the first value-added products: ʻUlu Chocolate Mousse and ʻUlu Hummus.2016:
2017:
July
Membership grew to 27 members through word-of-mouth.2017:
July
Opened co-op’s first dedicated aggregation, processing and storage facility at the state-owned Honalo Marshaling Yard in Kailua-Kona. Still operated out of Sweet Cane Cafe in Hilo to receive members’ fruit on the east side of Hawaiʻi island.2017:
2018:
March
First sale of ʻulu to Hawaii Department of Education. Served all schools on Oʻahu and Maui with ʻUlu, Spinach, and Kalua Pork wraps.
2018:
October
Supplied all 270 schools in the state for Harvest of the Month lunch special of ʻulu beef stew. Some schools like it so much that they replace potatoes with ʻulu in their beef stew for the rest of the year.2018:
2018:
July
Membership grew to 56 farmers.2018:
November
Began processing other local crops for the Department of Education (ʻuala, banana, papaya).2018:
2018:
December
Partnered with Hawaiʻi Farm to School Hui to begin developing a P-20 ʻUlu Education Toolkit.2018:
December
First Maui member joined the co-op; HUC is now a bi-island co-op.2018:
2019:
April
UH College of Education STEM2 joined Hui partnership to further develop ʻUlu Education Toolkit project.2019:
July
Membership grew to 70 farmers.2019:
2019:
August
Became the first tenant at Kamehameha School’s Alae Postharvest Processing Facility, which becomes co-op’s dedicated aggregation site in Hilo for east Hawai’i farmers.2019:
November
First draft of ʻUlu Education Toolkit piloted statewide in classrooms of 20 kumu from 6 islands.2019:
2020:
January
New recipe ready retail packs of frozen ʻulu launched in 23 store locations on 6 islands.2020:
April
Online co-op shop launched in response to COVID-19, with a full array of e-commerce products available for shipping nationwide in 100% compostable, insulated packaging.2020:
2020:
June
HUC launches COVID-19 Relief and Response Campaign, partnering with the Food Basket to deliver over 60,000 lbs of frozen ʻulu and other minimally-processed local staple crops to families affected by the pandemic as of February 2021.2020:
July
Membership grew to 84 farmers.2020:
2020:
November
HUC ʻulu flour product released for wholesale and retail consumers. In partnership with Voyaging Foods and Hawaiʻi Farmers Union Foundation, the 30% by 2030 Initiative was established to continue educating the public about how to use ʻulu flour and replace 30% of imported flours with flours made with local starches by 2030.2021:
January
First chef-curated food box and cooking demo launched in partnership with Chef Kealoha Domingo of Nui Kealoha, providing home consumers across Hawaiʻi and the United States with access to Hawaiʻi grown and made agricultural products and world-class recipes and instruction from respected, island chefs.2021:
2021:
April
ʻUlu Education Toolkit officially launched on University of Hawaii College of Education STEM2 website.2021:
May
Membership surpassed 100 farmers.2021:
2021:
June
First Oʻahu member-farm, Kahumana Farm, joins the co-op.2021:
July
Co-op celebrates 5-year anniversary at annual member meeting. Travis Forgues from Organic Valley (the largest farmer-owned co-op in the U.S) joins as a guest speaker.2021:
2021:
July
Hired first Director of Sales, Tamara Butterbaugh– previously of Mānoa Chocolate
2021:
August
Launched Recipe-Ready pack line in grocery stores statewide; partnered with KCC, 7-11 and Warabeya to offer ulu wagyu beef stew at 7-11 locations statewide
2021:
2021:
September
Awarded Value Added Producer Grant from the USDA Rural Development to scale Hawaii grown and milled ulu flour
2021:
October
National Farm to School Month celebrated in partnership with Kokua Hawaii Foundation and other community partners to host ulu cooking demos and distribute Kumu Ulu boxes and educational packets statewide; hired first Member Coordinator – Kyle Jackson
2021:
2021:
November
Launched Ulu Agroforestry scaling partnership with Propagate and OK Farms, funded by Elemental Excelerator Ohana Grant
2021:
December
Completed ulu value-added product R&D initiative in partnership with Ulu ambassadors Dan Robayo and Sarah Burchard and master food preserver Shannon Rodriguez, to develop new all purpose baking mix made with ulu flour, ulu fries recipe, and new flavors for ulu hummus and chocolate mousse; project made possible by Big Island Resource Conservation and Development Council and the County of Hawaii.
2021:
2022:
January
Established partnership with HFA to significantly expand availability of recipe-ready packs at many more grocery stores in Hawaii, including Longs/CVS; hired first Marketing Manager – Kenta Nemoto
2022:
February
Launched four-part Hawaii Cooperative Webinar Series in partnership with The Kohala Center to educate coop members and the public about Hawaii co-ops
2022:
2022:
March
Awarded first grant in farmer-membership department, a Sustainable Agriculture Resource and Education (SARE) Grant to test and report on best practices for cost effectively preventing ungulate damage and managing weeds in young breadfruit orchards
2022:
April
Soft launch of Hoopili Ai campaign to restore Harvest of the Month program in Hawaii elementary schools; GM and Member coordinator travel to Wisconsin for Organic Valleyʻs Annual Member Meeting / inspired to draft HUCs first Foundational Tenets modeled after lessons learned from CROPP
2022:
2022:
May
Flour Line Launch, featuring Samoa grown and milled and all purpose basking mix alongside pure hawaii grown and milled flour; hired first Alae Postharvest Facility manager – Fiona Rowles
2022:
May/June
conduct first circuit of regional member meetings on big island
2022:
2022:
June
Final membership count 125 – across 3 islands; Ok Farms 5-acre ulu agroforestry site planted out with ulu trees and co-crops – hosted first community planting day; released ulu agroforestry in hawaii guide and hosted webinar.2022:
July
Hawai‘i ‘Ulu Co-op celebrates its 6th annual member meeting with 100 farmers, staff and guests at Honalo facility in Kailua-Kona where new board members were elected. Guest speaker Angelina McCoy shared about ‘ulu culture in Micronesia.The Hawai‘i ‘Ulu Co-op is formally invited to the Pacific Islands Farmers Organization Network (PIFON), becoming it’s first Hawai‘i member.
The ‘Ulu Co-op provided the Hawai‘i Food and Wine Festival with kalo for its Kalo Recipe Contest in partnership with Hawai‘i Executive Collaborative and Kamehameha Schools.
2022:
2022:
August
The Hawai‘i ‘Ulu Co-op reaches a milestone of aggregating and distributing over 1,000,000 pounds of Hawai‘i grown staple crops from its member farmers.The Hawai‘i ‘Ulu Co-op expands to O‘ahu and Maui with crop drop off locations for neighbor island member farmers.
2022:
September
The Hawai‘i ‘Ulu Co-op participated in the Hawai‘i ag conference, with talks on co-ops, value chain development and the Hawai‘i county BBB coalition.
First Kaua’i member joins the Hawai‘i ‘Ulu Co-op, bringing geographic representation to four Hawaiian islands.
2022:
2022:
October
Hawai‘i ‘Ulu Co-op attended the Global Breadfruit Summit which took place at the Honolulu Convention Center.
The Hawai‘i ‘Ulu Co-op hosts ‘ulu agroforestry round table with key Hawai‘i agriculture stakeholders in Hilo to get feedback and insights on future ‘ulu agroforestry developments across pae ʻāina.
2022:
November
The Hawai‘i ‘Ulu Co-op releases and co-authors Chef Sam Choy’s ‘Ulu Cookbook with Gaye Wong and Mutual Publishing Inc.2022:
2023:
January
Kirthi Hagalwadi, Masters in Public Health student from San Jose State University works as the co-op’s first public health intern, in partnership with nutritionist ambassador Cynthia Archibald and Hui Mālama Ola Nā ʻŌiwi to reach the community.2023:
February
The co-op goes to Tonga on a knowledge exchange mission with Nishi Trading, another member of the Pacific Islands Farmer Organization Network (PIFON).
The Hawai‘i ‘Ulu Co-op’s farmer members brought in a record breaking 138,839 pounds of ‘ulu in FY23 season.
2023:
2023:
March
The Hawai‘i ‘Ulu Co-op hires Aaron Braud as the new Alae Postharvest Processing Facility.
Partnered with the Nature Conservancy along with UH CTHAR and Propagate Ag to launch the AgroforestryUSA project to help increase farm income, soil health, water quality and biodiversity while reducing GHG emissions.
2023:
May
The ‘Ulu Co-op distributes the last Hoʻopili ʻAi boxes of the school year to Hawai‘i keiki – bringing the total up to 3,544 lbs of Hawai‘i-grown staple crops served to 7,725 students during the 2022-2023 school year.
2023:
2023
June
Our board of directors approves the 150th co-op member. The final count at the end of FY23 is 151 farmers strong and growing!
The Hawai‘i ‘Ulu Co-op hires Roger Fawcett as the new Sales Manager based out of Honolulu, Hawai‘i.
Celebrated the one year anniversary at O.K. Farms ‘Ulu Agroforestry project where we welcomed 150+ community volunteers’ kōkua. Together we planted 213 ʻulu trees, 25 bananas, 280 mamaki, 870+ coffee trees, 1000+ pumpkins, 600+ kō, and over 2000 kalo huli.
Participated in the Hawai‘i on the Hill event with the Chamber of Commerce Hawai‘i in Washington DC.
2023
August
We upgraded the Honalo Processing Facility’s freezer to more than double our storage capacity from 16 to 42 pallets, allowing us to increase our production and sales capacity.2023
2023
September
Our 7th annual member meeting was held at our Alae post-harvest facility in Hilo.2023
October
During Farm to School Month 2023, we distributed nearly 350 Farm-to-School Boxes and served almost 90 schools across the islands. Learn about the Hawai‘i Harvest of the Month & Ho‘opili ‘Ai Farm-to-School Program.
2023
2023
November
The ʻUlu Co-op was selected as the Hawaiʻi regional partner with The Nature Conservancy to expand regenerative agroforestry through technical assistance and funding. The co-op hires its first full-time Agroforestry Specialist, Chris Kaʻiakapu. Learn more about the Expanding Agroforestry Project here.
2024
March
Our CEO, Dana Shapiro and Professor Noa Lincoln from UH CTAHR were invited to Philippines to exchange information about breadfruit production. Read Dana’s blog about the trip here.
2024
2024
May
The co-op joins Mana Up cohort 9, a Hawaiʻi-based accelerator program with the goal to create “strategic partnerships” to expand its network across various sectors and increase market opportunities for farmers. Learn more here.
2024
June
We were invited to Hawaiʻi on the Hill in Washington D.C for a second year, met with state leaders, and showed off our newly-developed ‘Inamona MacNut ‘Ulu Hummus!
2024
2024
July
We finished the year with a record 170 farmer-members!
