When we think of common ground, we think of a welcoming, inclusive space with significance for a community of people who share certain values. Common Ground is well named, then, as the 83-acre enterprise with an ambitious agenda for helping to make profitable local agriculture and agri-related small businesses in Hawai‘i. The site has historically been used for agriculture, in the past century the home of Guava Kai Plantation that closed in 2007. A farm-to-table café failed to make it, closing in 2014 to the disappointment of many who were hooked on the amazing kale salad and other healthy preparations from the adjacent garden. A team of new owners began to implement an innovative comprehensive plan, announcing, “We’re building our vision of becoming a place where people come to gather, celebrate, connect, share and create.”

Common Ground’s mission, broadly speaking, is for everyone to realize how much they have in common with the farmers and local food and beverage food entrepreneurs of Kaua‘i. Agriculture is the unifying concept for the ambitious framework the new investors hope to achieve. Chief Operating Officer Jennifer Luck explains that the large campus offers many opportunities for experimentation. She describes it as a “petri dish” that allows Common Ground to demonstrate some of the systems and approaches that are central to the company’s mission. The Food Innovation Center is the focus of multiple strategies to sustain local agriculture and help it expand as a vital sector of the economy. The vision consists of a framework that also includes business development in the form of two programs, Accelerator and Incubator, to support small agri-businesses. Distribution of local products through a retail spot on-site and e-commerce is part of the plan to help local farmers and food and beverage entrepreneurs become more profitable. Value-added is a priority, helping enhance the value of raw ingredients through, for example, innovation of new products, branding, and employing economic efficiencies.

An acre of the property has already been dedicated to a regenerative tropical agroforestry project to be expanded over time. Farm tours provide educational facts about this natural and age-old farming methodology. Farm Manager John Parziale supervises this fascinating project. Different stories or levels of growth create a reciprocal relationship among the members of an agroforest. Trees hover over lower lying (or lower storied) agricultural vegetation, together forming a mutually supportive environment helping all the members to thrive while “growing” the soil. Several stories of growth are already active according to the website, “‘ulu, avocado and banana trees; coffee, kava, mamaki and taro in the understory…” Other members include “nitrogen fixing plants,” the soil builders that recycle nutrients, and annual plantings of vegetables. The environmental themes of abundance, resilience and sustainability are demonstrated by the tropical agroforest and elaborated through the farm tours.

The venture capital approach assures that Common Ground is dedicated to helping grow businesses. Accelerator and Incubator have already made advances in terms of providing support and training to local businesses. Accelerator invests in local businesses. The program is under the co-direction of Adam Watten and Brian Halweil. Adam, as a resident of Kaua‘i for more than a decade, has a hands-on relationship to the program. Brian, based in New York, has the “big picture” view. Adam described how the two directors are able to mesh their skills, basically connecting regional (Hawaiian Islands) and mainland knowledge about what works on Kaua‘i to what is emerging in an environment of more rapid national change. Brian’s extensive experience as a food writer and working in cutting edge food industry development (around sustainability) brings expertise to the table. Brian is able to monitor closely “the national conversation around food.” For example, Brian can tell Adam what ingredient is trending, and Adam can provide the critical piece, if feasible, of who is growing it in the Hawaiian Islands or by creating a unique product out of it. Adam formed his extensive relationships with farmers and small businesses when he co-founded along with Collin Darell, Hanai Market, a grocery that sold 100% local produce and goods that subsequently closed. Consequently, Adam sees his strength as understanding “the supply chain.”

Two local businesses were selected to participate in the first cohort for Accelerator late fall 2019, Tiny Isle, co-owned by Lisa Parker and Roland Barker, and Slow Island Food and Beverage Co., solely owned by Gida Snyder. As fate would have it, Covid would pose unprecedented obstacles for these food entrepreneurs in the next half year. As Adam puts it, the focus of Accelerator became “managing some of the craziness and interesting situations Covid created around small businesses.” When tourists could no longer visit the island during Covid, Kaua‘i companies had to find new ways to maximize their local customer base. Accelerator helped Tiny Isle, which had previously sold their macadamia nut butter in small travel size containers, to transfer over to a larger size more appropriate for the pantry. Common Ground came up with ideas for marketing to locals and helped purchase a larger grinder for the nuts to process larger quantities and reduce costs. Gida Snyder with Slow Island was able to capitalize on the wellness benefits of her turmeric tonic, especially improving immunity, and rebrand it for the health-conscious consumer. Adam summed it up as “doing anything you could to help them become more efficient and more profitable. The ultimate aim was “creating more demand and more supply.”

Part of the guidance of the team at Common Ground is to help small businesses scale to global demand, for example, seeking markets outside of Kaua‘i and shipping their products. As Gida’s products moved into national markets, she purchased packaging in bulk. Storage space on Kaua’i is hard to find. At Common Ground where space is abundant. In addition to storing pallets of packing materials, Gida has been able to stockpile fresh squeezed orange juice on the campus, enabling her to buy large quantities of oranges to save costs.

The Common Ground team also identified the need to help earlier stage businesses get onto a solid footing. The Incubator program was devised for “business training,” for “building groundswell from the ground up,” in essence, for “building opportunity through food.” That program is run through the philanthropic arm of Common Ground and, potentially, can eventually feed businesses into the Accelerator investment program as they achieve a certain level of success. The instructor was Dirk Soma, assistant professor and business coordinator at Kaua‘i Community College. Participants in the Incubator program reported they were really pleased with the experience. Ben Fitt of Outpost Coffee said the “biggest thing” is that the program helped form “a little community of agricultural businesses.” In writing a mission statement for his business, Ben’s thinking about his goals expanded, and he was able to identify “core values” around “relationships, sustainability, and innovation.” Justine Bennett’s company ‘Ekahi Market cans tuna in the way her Austrian grandmother taught her. As a participant in Incubator, she confirmed Ben’s experience about how the business owners bonded, saying they were still in touch. They share information about how they source supplies, markets that have been good for their products, and just generally about what is working for them. She used the financial help Common Ground gave her “for equipment, rent, advertising and help with labor.” She was able to hire her first employee, and as a result, learned about employee training. Justine identifies this as a vital lesson since additional employees are needed to expand businesses.

Common Ground is in the midst of its own multi-pronged business development. Many of the plans are in progress—a restaurant being expanded that will showcase local food and products, a retail space, and online shopping through the website for the curated products that meet the standards of local and responsible agriculture. Ideas abound for the future and are being put in place. Space is being mapped out for a commercial kitchen, food processing facilities, business research and development. The team is trying to fulfill needs they identify by interacting with local farmers and businesses. Adam defines the overall goal, “to capture as much of our own value chain as possible and to prevent our community’s resources from being offshored.” The crisis of interrupted tourism during Covid and the dire impact on local businesses has demonstrated beyond a shadow of a doubt this need for regional economic diversification. Jennifer Luck emphasizes the hopefulness behind these efforts, describing the “incredibly dynamic work” underway. Speaking to the spirit of the enterprise, Jennifer says she is “inspired and hopeful about the 21st century food economy and the impact it can have on the state and the people in the state.”

For more information about online shopping, events, and business development programs, visit the www.commongroundkauai.com.