ECO Maui Rotary hosts online auction to support local food security

The Rotary Club of ECO Maui is hosting an online silent auction over the next two weeks with a goal of raising $10,000 to support food security on the island.

The fundraiser comes amid growing concern over Hawaiʻi’s reliance on imported food and rising grocery costs. Increased expenses in shipping, production, packaging and materials like plastic and aluminum have made it harder for families to afford basic necessities.

To help address the issue, ECO Maui Rotary has partnered with the Maui Farmer Support Network to help small farmers with workshops, tool sharing and regenerative farming methods to create more abundance to share within the community.

Part of that effort includes Maui Farmer Support Network’s “Laulima Days,” where teams of 10 to 20 volunteers—some of them Rotary members—gather to help local farmers complete large projects in a single day. Tasks that might otherwise take a week or more are finished with collective effort, supporting food production and community resilience.

Organizers encourage residents to bid in the silent auction and participate in upcoming Laulima Days to help farmers grow more efficiently and share their harvests.

To bid or donate, visit 32auctions.com/EcoMaui25. For more on MFSN and Laulima Days, go to mauifarmernetwork.com/events.

Maui Farmer Support Network will also have a booth at the Maui Ag Festival on Saturday, May 31, at War Memorial Coliseum in Wailuku.

The Rotary Club of ECO Maui focuses on the preservation, protection and improvement of the aina (land), the wai (water) and the ea (life) on Maui. The club assumed the charter of the Valley Isle Club in 2022. It is one of 53 Rotary Club in district D5000 of Hawaiʻi. Maui Farmer Support Network Executive Director Georgia Pinsky is also a club officer (secretary) at ECO Maui Rotary.