20 for the Next 20: Dana Shapiro, Hawai‘i ‘Ulu Cooperative
The coop’s co-founder and general manager is working to revitalize breadfruit as a staple crop and a regular item on Hawai‘i’s tables.
Dana Shapiro
Co-founder and GM, Hawai‘i ‘Ulu Cooperative
Dana Shapiro fell in love with ‘ulu on her second trip to Hawai‘i Island. The versatile and nutritious fruit had fallen out of fashion, but a movement was afoot to bring breadfruit back to shelves and plates.
“‘Ulu wasn’t mainstream at all,” Shapiro says. “It was still very niche, but within that niche, it was buzzing.”
It was 2010, and she had finished her master’s degree from Ben-Gurion University in Israel, where she had spent her early childhood on a kibbutz. She traveled to Hawai‘i Island and reconnected with farmers she’d met there during an undergraduate field program with Cornell University and a summer job running an agrotourism program.
That second trip to the island never ended. Shapiro eventually started an ‘ulu farm with her husband, where she learned how challenging the fruit can be. For example, ‘ulu ripens within days of being cut, giving it a short shelf life.
“There was a lightbulb moment when I thought maybe there’s an opportunity to help ‘ulu farmers work together to be more successful than they could be on their own,” Shapiro says.
Adapting the collectivist model of the kibbutz, she co-founded the Hawai‘i ‘Ulu Cooperative in 2016, where she serves as GM. The co-op has grown to about 150 owners, mostly small farmers on Hawai‘i Island, many of them Native Hawaiian.
Farmers pay low entry costs to the group and annual dues in exchange for technical support. More importantly, the ‘Ulu Cooperative purchases their crops at fair prices and provides guaranteed markets, Shapiro says. At processing facilities in Hilo and Kona, the breadfruit is cooked and packaged, ground into flour or turned into other products.
One market for the farmers is public schools, where ‘ulu was often on cafeteria menus before the pandemic. Shapiro is now working with Lydi Morgan Bernal, the O‘ahu Farm to School coordinator at UH, to supply schools with sample boxes.
“Dana really understands the need for education in order to bring breadfruit back as a staple food source for Hawai‘i,” Bernal says. She adds, “The past perception was that co-ops are too difficult, farmers can’t work together. Dana has really disproven that perception.”
Shapiro has also been successful raising capital from social-impact investors and getting grant money. She’s now spearheading an agroforestry project funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture that will distribute $6 million to Hawai‘i farmers for planting trees, including ‘ulu.
