Hawaii’s food insecurity at highest levels, as support from the federal government drops

By Paul Drewes

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    HAWAII (KITV) — There are more empty spaces on Hawaii Foodbank shelves, after a recent cut to funding from the federal government.

“We normally carry about three to four weeks of inventory on hand at any given time. So all the food you see in the warehouse, we run through that in about three weeks. Right now we’re closer to two,” said Hawaii Foodbank President & CEO Amy Miller.

Most of the inventory comes from local donations of money and food, from businesses or individuals, but there is also support from the federal government.

“About 22% of all of our revenue and the food we distribute comes from federal sources.”

That added up to almost 22 million pounds of food last year.

But this year it will be less, after funding was cut nationwide.

“Here in Hawaii, the impact is going to be about $4 million a year, for emergency food assistance program funding from a very specific source called CCC: Commodity Credit Corporation.”

CCC money was used to buy chicken, pork, and other more expensive proteins the Hawaii Foodbank can’t always purchase.

Without the funds, it may have to shift to lesser expensive alternatives or ask for more help locally to make up shortfalls.

“We’ll look to our community. We’ve seen this community step up to help each other out. We live in Hawaii, we all help each other. We live in an island, and people really do take care of each other.”

That is not the only program which has seen cuts.

Boxes for seniors ship to Hawaii filled with foods from the USDA.

“In our Senior Food Box program, there’s been a reduction in the number of seniors that we can serve through that program.”

In March, they gave out 2,200 boxes but now only 1,900 will be shipped to the islands each month.

There is also concern about future funding cuts, and not just to direct food bank programs. But also indirect ones to federal programs like SNAP benefits or Medicaid – which could drive up the need to feed thousands more in the islands..

“We actually have very high levels of food insecurity. Here in Hawaii, we did a study last year and found that about one in three households are food insecure.”

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