Hawaii: Mililani farm turned to community to weather pandemic shutdowns
Mari’s Gardens, an 18-acre-farm in Mililani operated by the Lau Family, has long been a chief supplier of produce to Hawaii’s restaurants, hotels, and cruise ships. All those industries were virtually shut down in March 2020 by the coronavirus pandemic.
“When they actually shut down restaurants, they shut down hotels also basically and so, the phone calls were coming in all day,” said Fred Lau, who started Mari’s Gardens in 2001. “We basically lost 60 to 70% of our revenue in a matter of days.”
As if the pain of lost business wasn’t enough, the Laus couldn’t just dump 15,000 pounds of lettuce ready for distribution. “It’s not like a water faucet,” Lau said. “You can’t turn off production. You can save this. There’s no way you stop this from growing and by next week, this is too old to sell.”
Hawaii Strong: Mililani farm turned to community to weather pandemic shutdowns
Hawaii Strong: Mililani farm turned to community to weather pandemic shutdowns By Mark Carpenter | March 5, 2021 at 3:41 PM HST - Updated March 5 at 5:03 PM
HONOLULU, Hawaii (HawaiiNewsNow) - Mariâs Gardens, an 18-acre-farm in Mililani operated by the Lau Family, has long been a chief supplier of produce to Hawaiiâs restaurants, hotels, and cruise ships.
All those industries were virtually shut down in March 2020 by the coronavirus pandemic.
âWhen they actually shut down restaurants, they shut down hotels also basically and so, the phone calls were coming in all day,â said Fred Lau, who started Mariâs Gardens in 2001.