Ep 62. Hawaii Commercial Kitchens

We have spoken with a number of Hawaii agriculture producers that say they are interested in making and selling value-added products, but are unable to find a certified kitchen to use or rent near them, or feel a little overwhelmed by what the Department of Health requires. In this episode, we speak with Anthony Florig, Program Manager of Hawaii Commercial Kitchens about a program he runs to help address these issues. We review the resources the program has to offer, both in person and online, and get a tour of the Hilo Food Hub’s commercial kitchen space. If you are only listening to this podcast, you’ll be able to understand the essence of the things we talk about, but this is one episode you may want to watch on our YouTube channel to also see the things discussed.

Brought to you by University of Hawaii College of Tropical Ag. and Human Resilience (CTAHR), and the Seeds of Well-being (SOW) Project. This podcast is supported by the Farm and Ranch Stress Assistance Network (FRSAN) grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, National Institute of Food and Agriculture and Hawaii Department of Agriculture.

Resources:

• Hawaii Commercial Kitchens
• Hilo Food Hub
• Hawaii Commercial Kitchens Kitchen Directory 
• Hawaii Commercial Kitchens Workshops 
• Hawaii Department of Health Food Info 
• Hawaii Department of Health Homemade Food Operation 
• Hawaii Department of Health Homemade Food Establishment Permit
• Hawaii Commercial Kitchens Resources
• Hawaii Commercial Kitchens Registration
• Hawaii Commercial Kitchens YouTube Channel
• Oahu's Wahiawā Value-Added Product Development Center

With thanks to Hoʻōla Farms and their Food Hub, Farm-to-Car, and other programs: https://hoolafarms.org/programs/ 

Find out more about us:

• Seeds Of Wellbeing website
• Seeds of Wellbeing Resource Hub
• All the SOW links

Transcript

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Jim: 0:04

The views, information or opinions expressed in this episode are solely those of the individuals involved, and do not necessarily represent those of the University of Hawaii, College of Tropical Agriculture and Human resilience, our funders or any of the organizations affiliated with this project. Welcome to a Seeds of Wellbeing"Experts in the Field" podcast featuring Hawaii agriculture producers and affiliates working in their field of expertise to support agriculture in Hawaii, in the United States and in some cases around the world. These podcasts are made possible by a grant from the University of Hawaii, College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resilience, also known as CTAHR, and the Seeds of Wellbeing or SOW project, and is supported by a grant from the US Department of Agriculture, National Institute of Food and Agriculture, and the Hawaii Department of Agriculture.

Anthony Florig: 0:59

Yeah, the Department of Health is our friend. They're your best resource for starting or developing your food business in Hawaii. They they are the ones that have the answers to the questions that you're asking. They're the ones that are giving the permits. They're the ones that are hearing complaints, they're the ones doing investigations, so you want to have a positive relationship with the Department of Health.

Jim: 1:27

We have spoken with a number of Hawai'i agriculture producers that say they're interested in making and selling value added products, but are unable to find a certified kitchen to use or rent near them or feel a little overwhelmed by what the Department of Health requires. In this episode, we speak with Anthony Florig, Program Manager of Hawaii Commercial Kitchens, about a program he runs to help address these issues. We review the resources the program has to offer, both in person and online, and get a tour of the Hilo Food Hub's commercial kitchen space. If you're only listening to this podcast, you'll be able to understand the essence of the things we talk about, but this is one episode you may want to watch on our YouTube channel to also see the things discussed. Anthony is here to answer these questions for us. Should, do I want to produce a value added product, and if I do, do I need a commercial kitchen. And if I need a commercial kitchen, how do I go about finding one? And what do I need to know? So is that, is that all answerable by you, Anthony?

Anthony Florig: 2:26

Yeah, absolutely.

Jim: 2:27

Okay, great

Anthony Florig: 2:28

Thanks for having me. Jim,

Jim: 2:28

Thanks for being here. I know we have some, I've seen you a few different forums, and on this podcast, we'll try to mix in some of the different things we've seen in some of the places we've been, to see what you're working on. But just give us a quick background about you, how you got to be the one that started up and is running the Hawaii Commercial Kitchens program. A little bit about and a little bit about the program.

Anthony Florig: 2:51

Yeah, absolutely. So the Hawaii Commercial Kitchens program was started as the result of a grant through Hawaii County Research and Development, the Food Security and Agricultural Initiatives Program. So under that grant program, there was six different categories to combat food insecurity on Hawaii Island, and there were seven commercial kitchen infrastructure awards for organizations around the island who are building or developing their commercial kitchens. So I've been working with the Hilo Food Hub and Ho'ola Farms for many years, managing their agriculture and business education and workshops. So I applied for the commercial kitchen technical assistance category under this grant program, which included a number of different support services for not just these commercial kitchens, but also any food business on Hawaii Island that survived COVID, basically. These are COVID Recovery funds. So as long as you have a food business that started on or before March of 2020, then you're eligible for free, one on one technical assistance and support for your food business from myself and a team of service providers. And then we also do a monthly workshop that's open to the public, free in person at the Hilo Food Hub, and it's also broadcast via zoom.

Jim: 4:31

Wow, that's great. I'm we've spoken to a lot of Hawaii ag producers over the years, and commercial kitchens, and access to those has been a barrier, I know, for some that want to do value added product that requires a commercial kitchen for certain health certifications. They want to make sure they have for different markets they want to get into. So it feels like the past few years, I'd say two or three years, especially, there's been a real explosion of availability. And as it sounds like it's related to the timing of the grant money. So you're talking about does that sound

Anthony Florig: 5:01

Mm-hmm

Jim: 5:01

Okay, great right?

Anthony Florig: 5:03

It's a really effective program. And if I can share my screen here, I can show you the website that we developed, which has a commercial kitchen directory on it

Jim: 5:12

Sounds great.

Anthony Florig: 5:13

Right here. So this is HawaiiCommercialKitchens.com,

Jim: 5:17

Yep.

Anthony Florig: 5:19

And you can register your food business for free one on one support right here. Like I said, if you've been in business since March of 2020, or before,

Jim: 5:31

There's still spots available?

Anthony Florig: 5:33

Oh, yeah, yep. And then you can also register for our upcoming workshop this May featuring Daeus Bencomo of Lavaloha Chocolate, talking about personnel management. And like I said, we do technical assistance, we do the workshops. We have kitchen directory, which you can all find,

Jim: 5:55

and you have free chocolate at the seminar. So...

Anthony Florig: 5:58

There is going to be some free chocolate.

Jim: 6:00

I noticed that.

Anthony Florig: 6:04

So yeah, so here's the commercial kitchen directory. So these are all different commercial kitchens for rent around the island, organized by district the Pahoa Lava Zone Community Kitchen recently opened In Pahoa, Liko Lehua is building a new facility in Mountain View. The Hawaiian Acres Community Association is building a food hub in the Acres. And then there's also food businesses that have commercial kitchens, like Hamakua Coast Premium and Pa'auilo Chocolate, who have excess capacity, so they're looking for a few clients, you know, that it's the right fit. As well as more community food hubs like the Onomea Farm Hub, which will be coming soon to the Onomea area. Kohala Food Hub has been doing it for a while as well. They have a great facility. And then Touching the Earth Farm also just opened their commercial kitchen. They got a bunch of coconut processing equipment. That's really exciting. West Hawaii Community Kitchen will also be opening shortly in Kona. And then there's also, you know, different facilities, like like the Queen Emma Community Center, or the, you know, certain county buildings, the Ocean View Community Association that has kitchen facilities that are for rent for certain situations. So basically, wherever you are, there's probably some sort of facility that you can take advantage of if you need to. Usually a big question for folks, do I need a commercial kitchen? Right? Right?

Jim: 7:47

And this is on the Big Island, right? Is there such a resource for other islands that you know of, or just the Big Island?

Anthony Florig: 7:52

No, this is a kind of a unique program that Hawaii County put together. So on the resource page, I direct people to the Hawaii Department of Health. This is where you can really answer the question, Do I need a commercial kitchen or not? So we don't have to jump into that right now, unless you want to.

Jim: 8:13

No Maybe, if we were to use an example, right? It's like, where is that line? I know there's some recent laws and changes that have kind of relaxed some of the the ability to make things at home and sell them. And so there's, I see a lot more roadside stands that are popping up and people selling things that I think are a result of that. So maybe I don't need a commercial kitchen. Maybe, maybe I could do it at home. But so maybe understanding an example of where that line is, like, I think you and I were talking earlier about hot sauce, and maybe you're maybe not, depends on how I want to get it labeled and what markets I want to sell it into, maybe as far as that that goes. But maybe, if you could use that, or maybe an example that you're seeing more that's more appropriate to talk about, that would be great to hear,

Anthony Florig: 8:58

Yeah, definitely. And then also just to direct people to these previous workshops that we've done. This is something that we cover in depth. This is like a two hour video on commercial kitchen management. So you can watch all of these previous workshop videos that we've done on our website or on YouTube at Hawaii commercial kitchens.

Jim: 9:19

Great.

Anthony Florig: 9:21

So if you go to the Department of Health website, we're specifically looking at food safety. So this is the food safety branch. And if you go to food info, this has everything you need to get a food establishment permit, or if you don't want to get a food establishment permit and make your food in your home kitchen, what where the rules are for that as well. Like I said, here's the permits, and then down here, there is the let's see if we can find it. Boom. Starting a homemade food operation. So it used to be, before this recent rule change, that that just took place in the last year, you were only allowed to make low risk products in your home kitchen, things like, you know, baked goods or candy that isn't temperature controlled at all, and you were only allowed to sell those items direct to consumer. So you couldn't sell them in grocery stores or, for example, on the Farm-to-Car market, only direct to consumer. But with the new rule that changed, you are now able to to make more varieties of food and higher risk foods in your home kitchen. They aren't allowed to be here. I'll just read this. As a homemade food producer, you are allowed to make food products that do not require time temperature control, for safety, to limit foodborne illness, foods of plant origin that are pickled, fermented or acidified. So now you can make pickles, you can make kimchi, you can make maybe tomato sauce. You're right, acidified foods that have a pH of less than 4.2 or water activity of less than point eight, eight. So as long as you meet this criteria, then you are allowed to make your product in a home kitchen. And in addition, another part of that rule change was you can now sell your homemade food to wholesale. You can sell that your product wholesale, so you can sell it to grocery stores, or you can get it on the farm to car market. There's also packaging and labeling requirements. These haven't changed, so you do have to put on your product made in a home kitchen not routinely inspected by the Department of Health, along with your ingredients, allergens, and then your name and contact info, and you also need your food safety certification. But it's opened up a lot more opportunity for folks to make and sell their homemade food products.

Jim: 12:17

Great. I imagine if I want to sell to KTA or Costco, right? This isn't going to cut it,

Anthony Florig: 12:24

Yeah, so just because the law says that you can now sell your homemade food, it doesn't mean that a grocery store has to buy your homemade food. So any larger food operation or major grocery store is likely not going to carry homemade food. There's a chance that KTA will. KTA is very friendly to local producers and farmers, so you don't know unless you ask. And it's nice too, because if they don't, then you can say, "Well, what do I need in order to sell my food in your establishment?" Yeah,

Jim: 13:00

Okay, got it. So if the next, next level up, though, go through the Department of Health, and go through that program, and that's pretty self explanatory,

Anthony Florig: 13:08

I wouldn't say it's self explanatory. We get a lot of people that have questions, well, like, why I want to, you know, I want to get a food establishment permit.

Jim: 13:18

Yeah.

Anthony Florig: 13:20

So again, it's, it's the Department of Health, food establishment permits. So there's two kinds of food establishment permits. There's the special event permit, which is, it doesn't require an inspection. But you do this if you're selling like a food sale, such as a farmer's market, a fundraiser, craft fair, carnival, something that's at a single location,

Jim: 13:47

Right. Even if I'm doing it every week,

Anthony Florig: 13:51

Yeah, if you're serving food to the public, you're going to need a food establishment permit. If you want to get your green placard, then you want to get a full food establishment permit, so that, whether that's a restaurant, a bar, a market, a convenience store, you know, a food truck, a value added producer, you can get your food establishment permit. And it's the same application for all the permits. It's really simple, this single page here, and then you can see on the back, it has all the different types and risk categories. So this determines how much your permit costs. So let's say, Jim, you make hot sauce, so you would be considered a food manufacturer. And I'd imagine you would be considered a small food manufacturer. Hot sauce could be considered not a low risk product, but maybe not a high risk product, maybe somewhere in the middle. So my guess is you would get a risk category of two. It's one, two or three, and that makes your permit $200 a year.

Jim: 15:15

Is one the highest risk?

Anthony Florig: 15:18

Correct.

Jim: 15:19

Got it.

Anthony Florig: 15:20

Yeah. And so if you're a risk category of one, then it's $300 a year. And if you have a high risk product, you would also be required to have a HACCP plan. HACCP plan is a Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point Plan. It's basically like an advanced food safety plan. And if you want to learn more about HACCP plans, we did a workshop in October with John Nakashima from food safety services Hawaii, who you could hire to write your has to plan if you want to. The other things that you need for this permit again, your your food handlers certification, which is an easy class you could take online, and then you would need to submit a copy of your label, which has your ingredients and all of that stuff, and what's called a letter of intent and process flow, basically like, "Hey, my name Is Jim. I make this hot sauce. This is how I make it. These are the ingredients, and this is where I'm going to sell it." And then you submit all that to the DOH, and they will schedule an inspection, where they kind of go through the process with you and and then they issue you your green placard, and you're off to the races.

Jim: 16:41

Sounds like regional inspectors for the health department. So there's probably one assigned to, you know, Hilo, and one assigned to Kona. Is that how it works?

Anthony Florig: 16:50

Yeah, they they work based off jurisdiction. So depending on where your kitchen is or where your special event is, will determine who your Department of Health inspector will be

Jim: 17:02

and become friends with that person. Get to know them well, I imagine. They're probably going to be your best friend, or you're going to be of help, right?

Anthony Florig: 17:10

Yeah, the Department of Health is your friend. Yeah. I think a lot of people get scared because, you know, they're the authority on the food safety and they're the people that are, you know, granting you your permit, or taking away your permit. So people get scared, but they're the ones that have all the answers. They just want to make sure that that the food that is being served to the Hawaii public is safe. So if you're not sure where to go, talk to the Department of Health.

Jim: 17:38

Do you have a sense that they're interested in helping people succeed? I mean, is that kind of the general energy of the Department from your standpoint?

Anthony Florig: 17:47

Yeah, if you're if you are not doing something, they're going to tell you, like,"Hey, you need to do this differently." Or when you submit your application, if there's something missing in your letter of intent or process flow, they're not going to deny you. They're gonna say, "Hey, you need to add this to your letter of intent, or you need to maybe put this on your on your label."

Jim: 18:09

Yeah, and we've, we've had conversations with the County about, you know, the changes in in property tax, AG, zoning. We've talked to NRCS and it, I think people are afraid right to to approach them, but, but it turns out, as we talk to them anyway, it sounds like they're just there to help, and they want people to be successful, yeah, and safe, right?

Anthony Florig: 18:29

Absolutely

Jim: 18:29

Okay, great. Okay, so what kind of folks do you have in your program? Or you have a whole wide range of people? Is

Anthony Florig: 18:34

Yeah, that's the main criteria. You have to be in any? Is it open to anybody? You said, you said, there's certain criteria, like, was it 2020? business since March 1 of 2020 and we check that by your general excise tax license. And then, as long as you're a food business, you're eligible. So whether you're a farm, a food truck, value added producer, a restaurant. So yeah, we have kind of a diverse range, whether it's like one man show beekeepers to, you know, a million plus dollar a year value added producers, large scale farm operations. Yeah, basically any, I mean, any food business, in any business in general, if there's free support in a variety of areas, there's usually some area where we can help. So I have a great team of people on that are providing technical assistance on different categories. So let me share my screen one more time.

Jim: 19:43

Yeah, I like that resource page. It looked like there are lots. It wasn't too much, right? It wasn't overwhelming. It was kind of, yeah, just a few things that felt important.

Anthony Florig: 19:52

So if you go to the technical assistance page, you can see a list. So I'll cover any of the business consulting services. And then we have marketing support from Ho'olo Farms. Financial Planning with Dr Brett Carey. Permitting and compliance with Megan Brady of Hilo Food Hub and Uproot Origin. Food safety, with Chef Jess from Hawaii Master Food Preservers. And then Daeus with personnel management from Lavaloha, and like I said, John Nakashima on HACCP plans. We also have added professional photography services to add to the marketing, and then additional consulting and pH and water activity tests for the homemade food producers.

Jim: 20:40

Nice. So if I wanted to be part of your program, what would I? What would I do?

Anthony Florig: 20:45

Go to the website hawaiicommercialkitchens.com, and fill out this simple registration form.

Jim: 20:52

Okay, great.

Anthony Florig: 20:52

Yep. And then I'll get back to you, and we'll set up a meeting figure out what you know what your business is and what your goals are, and then how we can help.

Jim: 21:04

Great. And funding, I think you mentioned when we were talking earlier, funding for the program is through August. Is that right?

Anthony Florig: 21:13

Through August of this year, 2026

Jim: 21:16

But it sounds like resources will be maintained online and and maybe, if we're, it sounds like your goal is to connect people with resources to that will last beyond the program. So it sounds like that's, yeah an important part.

Anthony Florig: 21:28

We've done these, we've done these workshops every month, and there's a version of each one, so there's nine of them, and they're all posted on YouTube. Those are not going anywhere, and that information. So pretty much everything we talked about today can be found on those on those workshops.

Jim: 21:47

Okay, so maybe to really fill out the answer to the question I posed, the questions I posed at the beginning, I I've been growing hot peppers for, you know, over a decade in Hawaii, and had some success, and have some peppers that I think are great. I love hot sauce, so I've made hot sauce that I have not I think is better than any I've tried. And my friends and neighbors that I give it to say they agree. Say,"man, you should sell this." I was kind of educated as a farmer, and heard through the kind of the farmer grapevine, that if you're all you're doing is growing a crop and harvesting it and selling it to somebody else, that you're not going to be as profitable unless you can do like a value added product and and ramp it up. And that's where the real profit is. So like, in my mind, I'm thinking, Oh man, that's I could really make money, then. I could make a lot more profit if I make hot sauces and start selling those, I mean, of course, I'd have to look at the market, because there's a lot out there. Yep, but if I've done that due diligence, like, at what point does it make sense for me to maybe launch a hot sauce business and then find commercial kitchens and try to, you know, get all the certifications I need to sell it at KTA or even Costco, maybe?

Anthony Florig: 23:01

Yeah, yeah. So I would say it depends on what your goal is, Jim. I know a lot of folks, it's almost like you feel pressured to start a value added product. From my experience, one of the mistakes a lot of small business owners make early on is trying to do too many things. So if you're growing peppers, and you love growing peppers, and you're able to sell all your peppers, then I would keep doing that. If you have some extra peppers and you want to, you know you want to make sure they don't go to waste, and you make hot sauce, that's great. But if you decide that you're going to now make a full run of going for getting hot sauce into Costco, my guess is you're not growing enough peppers for that, Jim. And now, all of a sudden, instead of growing peppers, you're buying peppers from other people, and you're focusing on making hot sauce instead of growing peppers. So if that's what you want to do, then do that. But if you want to grow peppers and make hot sauce for your friends, you don't have to do a big value added business. The true value of of of value added production is the ability to preserve your produce that you're growing, right? So if you have extra peppers, then save them and make hot sauce, and then you have this extra product. And if you, you know, crunch the numbers, and you realize, hey, if I. I don't sell any peppers, and I keep all of them and I just make hot sauce. Will you be able to make more money, is the question. And it depends.

Jim: 25:11

Yeah,

Anthony Florig: 25:12

everybody's, everybody's situation is going to be different.

Jim: 25:15

Do the homework tho', right? Yeah,

Anthony Florig: 25:17

I can tell you that, like, there's going to be several factors. And the big one is you're going to have to do a bunch more work, right? So, so you have to, you have to weigh like, do you have a bunch of time free, time that you want it to spend doing it, or are you going to have to hire somebody and pay them? So in order to scale up like that, you have to be prepared to spend money and invest money. It's not going to be like it's not going to be your, your your answer to the problem of making more money,

Jim: 25:53

Not, no magic, there.

Anthony Florig: 25:54

Got it you, yeah, you got to be really clear that if you're going to be expanding your business, it's going to cost you money before it makes you money.

Jim: 26:02

Yeah, yeah.

Anthony Florig: 26:03

So I would say go slow. Get your proof of concept down by making your hot sauce with your excess peppers. And under the new homemade food rules, you can make it at home. You can sell it. You can even sell it, probably to KTA. So definitely start there. And if right, the goal is that you're sold out. You're sold out of peppers, you're sold out of hot sauce. And you got people saying, "Hey, Jim, I want more hot sauce. I want hot sauce"

Jim: 26:36

Yep. But knowing it up front and then actually testing the waters a little is what I hear you saying to get a sense of what it would really take. Like, how much of this can I do, and do I enjoy it even? So, yeah, good, good advice.

Anthony Florig: 26:51

And do you have evidence that that your hot sauce is the best hot sauce?

Jim: 26:55

Yeah? Well, my wife says it is.

Anthony Florig: 26:56

Obviously. Exactly, exactly so

Jim: 27:02

Objective evidence.

Anthony Florig: 27:03

There's no point in entering a market, especially a crowded market like like hot sauce, unless you have a value proposition that that differentiates you from the competition. And what that means, like a value proposition, is what, what separates you from everybody else? Is it as a certain ingredient? Is it a production process? Is it the best tasting hot sauce, like, not subjectively, but, but as evidenced through blind focus groups, right? Or maybe you want a hot sauce contest, right? If you can give credence to the fact that your hot sauce is the best, then you have a, you know, a better shot.

Jim: 27:47

Nice. Also, excellent advice. Thank you.

Anthony Florig: 27:51

Yeah,

Jim: 27:51

I may scale back that idea based on your feedback. I just

Anthony Florig: 27:57

Well, what's your goal?

Jim: 27:58

Yeah, exactly. It helped me figure out my goals, too. So the program's got all sorts of things it offers. Thank you.

Anthony Florig: 28:04

It's honestly the first thing I do with every single client. We set up the first meeting, we go over the business and I say, okay, what are your goals?

Jim: 28:11

Yeah. Anthony was kind enough to let us drop in on one of the program workshops that was held at the Hilo Food Hub. And after we got a sense of what some of the program participants learn, Anthony gave us a tour of the commercial kitchen there. He also shares some pretty sobering advice about whether or not making a value added product is for you, and if so, at what scale.

Anthony Florig: 28:33

So let me I'll give you a tour real quick. First, just out here we have this is where most of our food comes from, right by the port of Hilo, right?

Jim: 28:44

You actually have a cruise ship today.

Anthony Florig: 28:48

So when the original founder of the Hilo food hub started the business, it was just this little corner kitchen, and then there was like, all sorts of big industrial equipment that's now pretty much all gone, but he was making sauerkraut and kimchi, and he just, you know, found a kitchen that was for rent, and he rented it just to make his sauerkraut and kimchi, and then started renting out the excess space to other producers. And it got to the point where he was making more money renting out the excess space than from his own food business. And then eventually he stopped making sauerkraut and kimchi, kept doing the Hilo Food Hub. And then, yeah, then Ho'ola took it over. So you can see there's 16 different green placards here. So that's 16 food businesses that have their food establishment permit, plus we have like, another 16 to 20 that operate with special event permits, right? So they're selling food at the farmers market or at a roadside stand. The kitchen has a variety of community use equipment, from small wares to induction burners, rice cookers. We've got a Vitamix, juicers, there's a vacuum sealer here. And then we also rent out space in the kitchen for our clients. So if a client wants to rent out a shelf space they can do that. We got a 30, sorry, 20 quart mixer there, and then a variety of outlets and plugs to power your different, you know, entry level or commercial or industrial processing equipment. We have two convection ovens, which are really nice. Dehydrator. This gets a lot of use. And then, of course, the three department sink, and it's really important to have a clean space, especially when you're sharing it with a dozen other people. So we have a really strict cleaning policy. Everybody's required to clean the kitchen after they're done, and there's a cleaning checklist. So it makes it really easy. Yeah, but it's pretty simple. There's no hood vent, so this is a cold kitchen, and that means, it doesn't mean that there's no heat, right? Like I said, we have convection ovens, we have induction cooktop burners, but because we don't have a hood, there's no open flames and no vaporized grease. So we can't, you know, cook with propane in here. And you can cook things on an induction cooktop, but you can't, like saute in oil.

Jim: 32:03

But it's, that's why it's important to call the kitchen you may be interested in working with to see if you can.

Anthony Florig: 32:08

That's right.

Jim: 32:09

Use it to do what you want.

Anthony Florig: 32:10

Different kitchens have different facilities.

Jim: 32:13

Okay. Makes sense?

Anthony Florig: 32:15

It's pretty simple. It's not state of the art. It doesn't have to be you don't need, like, a Wahiawa Value Added Product Development enter in order to start your food business. You can, like I said, you can probably start in your home kitchen, and then work your way up. And then what we love to see is folks come to the kitchen, grow their food business, and then outgrow the Hilo Food Hub and move on to their own facilities.

Jim: 32:47

There is hope right, for folks that want to try it, that there are successes, that are people that are making it work and are more profitable and and maybe happier. Don't know that they go together, but, yeah,

Anthony Florig: 32:58

Busier, more work,

Jim: 32:58

Yeah. but are you seeing those

Anthony Florig: 32:59

More responsibility

Jim: 33:00

are you seeing those success stories?

Anthony Florig: 33:04

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. It's. It's important when we're talking about success, to define what your individual goals are. Because a lot of folks, especially if you don't have those goals defined, there's no way to define what success looks like. For somebody, for some people like for a for an MBA-level entrepreneur, success looks like selling your business, right? But a lot of folks are doing this because they love what they do, and the idea of selling their business isn't something they would ever want to do. So it's really important to define what your goals are, so you can define what success looks like for you. If your goal is to get your product on the shelf, boom success, but you're going to want to define what your goals are, because once your product's on the shelf, where are you going from there? If your goal is to make enough money to support yourself, starting a small food business is probably not the answer. Unpopular opinion, but that's the that's the hard truth of it. I hate to see when folks you know take something that they love and that they're passionate about, and then they try to squeeze profit out of it, because it ends up squeezing the passion out of it. So sometimes it's good to keep those things separate, or at least clearly defined, and just know that the resources are out there. You just have to seek them out. You have to fill out the forms, sign up for the newsletters, ask the questions. And just take it one step at a time.

Jim: 35:04

Yeah, and it sounds like with some of the new laws that have passed, that you can scale it to what makes sense for your passion and profit, right? Yeah, yeah.

Anthony Florig: 35:12

When you're trying to make these, if you're making it a jam or jelly, bring the jam or jelly. Give some to the Department of Health Inspector, right? Share what you're making all the time with folks,

Jim: 35:27

Which is kind of in the spirit of aloha too, right?

Anthony Florig: 35:29

Absolutely. And that's what's going to give you joy and give them joy, and it's going to get your name out there.

Jim: 35:36

We thank Anthony for helping answer some critical questions and giving us a tour of the Hilo kitchen. We also appreciate him sharing details about the latest regulations and also walking us through the hawaiicommercialkitchens.com website. He also offered great advice about setting goals and deciding if you really want to sell value added products, and if so at what scale. Make sure you check the links in the show notes and if it seems like the right fit and your food business started before March 2020 reach out to Anthony as soon as possible to obtain one-on-one technical assistance before the program ends in August 2026. Now let's hear some closing thoughts from Anthony. Seeds of Wellbeing is about trying to help alleviate stressors for Hawaii ag producers, so anything you just want to share in closing about thoughts for for how to do that, or how to help with that?

Anthony Florig: 36:30

Yeah, don't bite off more than you can chew right off the bat with growing your business, because it's not it's going to add to your stress. But I'll tell you, what, if growing peppers makes you happy, then grow peppers and be happy doing it. Sometimes that's just enough. You know,

Jim: 36:52

Excellent. All right, thank you, sir. Appreciate all the time. Yeah, and I'll be checking out the website and some of those videos and and I would encourage other folks to do so as well, if they're interested at all and in trying to scale up in the ways we're talking about. So thanks again.

Anthony Florig: 37:09

Yeah, and if anyone listening has a food business or a friend with the food business, send them to hawaiicommercialkitchens.com. We'd love to help them out.

Jim: 37:16

Links in the show notes. Mahalo.

Anthony Florig: 37:21

All right. Aloha Jim A value added product line is not going to save you. It's going to double, and in some cases, triple the amount of work you have to do. So in my opinion, I really like it when folks collaborate, right? If you want to have a value added products business, focus on the value added products business and source your produce from a farmer and you can collaborate.

Thao Le: 37:54

The intention of these podcast series is to create a safe space for respectful and inclusive dialog with people from across a broad and diverse spectrum involved in growing and making accessible the food we share together. A diversity of voices, perspectives and experiences can serve to deepen mutual understanding, to spark creative problem solving and provide insight into the complexities of our agriculture system. If you our listeners have experiences with Hawaii agriculture ecosystem, from indigenous methods, permaculture, small holder farmers to large including multinational agricultural industrial companies and everywhere in between, and you would like to share your story, please contact us. We welcome your voices and perspectives.

Jim: 38:45

Okay, well thanks for your time. Let's maybe go see what the tourists are doing

Anthony Florig: 38:51

Yeah, let's go shopping

Jim: 38:53

go shopping. Just hop the fence. I'll give you a leg up.

Anthony Florig: 38:57

Thanks, Jim.

Jim: 38:57

Thanks.