KULA — Maui Hub announced that it will be accepting online orders from customers enrolled in the USDA SNAP/EBT program.

Maui Hub is a nonprofit organization established in early April in response to the shuttering of local restaurants and businesses that cater to Maui residents and visitors. Its mission is to make local, healthy, fresh produce and products affordable and accessible to low-income families and to provide produce to nonprofit organizations.

While doing this, Maui Hub is restructuring local supply lines that pay Maui farmers and producers fair prices and pass on minimum markup to customers who wish to shop without the exposure of public markets.

Since its April inception, Maui Hub has purchased over $120,000 in products from Maui farmers and value-added producers in over 3,000 orders.

“COVID-19 really brought home the necessity of locally grown food. It is essential that we support farmers and ensure that everyone in our community has access to delicious, nutritious, locally grown food. Maui Hub was founded specifically to address these needs by connecting our local farmers with the community,” said Maui Hub President John Dobovan.

The online store is open from noon on Saturday through Tuesday night at 11 p.m. for the following Saturday pickup. Local farmers/producers are issued a “pick list” on Wednesday, so they know how much to harvest.

Farmers deliver the freshly harvested produce to Maui Hub partner Sun Fresh, where it is sorted, packed and loaded into refrigerated trucks for Saturday delivery to pickup sites in Central Maui (University of Hawaii Maui College), Kihei (behind Ace Hardware), Upcountry (Kulamalu), Lahaina (Choice Health Bar) and Haiku (next to Jaws Country Store). Check out www.MauiHub,org to learn more or to shop.

Maui Hub has applied to the USDA to be a retailer in the “Double Bux” program, which it expects to make available to SNAP customers in November. Under that program, SNAP customers will enjoy 50 percent off local fruits, vegetables and eggs.

Future services will expand to include home delivery, complete family meals/recipes-in-a-box and more.