The Hawaiʻi Foodbank received more than 700,000 meals' worth in donations during its annual food drive day.
The nonprofit held its largest yearly event Saturday at six sites across Oʻahu during what the organization has called a “critical” time — referring to the growing cost of living in Hawaiʻi, and unprecedented federal cuts in food and medical programs meant for low-income households.
“We were just so happy and grateful to see the kind of community turn out and support each other in this way,” said Hawaiʻi Foodbank CEO Amy Miller.
She added that more people are making monetary donations online.
“I think we've continued to see kind of a trend from previous years, which is less actual food people are dropping off (and) more people making their donations online, which is actually great for us because we just have far greater purchasing power than any of us do on our own going to the grocery store,” she said.
The food bank said it can buy two meals for every dollar it spends.
The Hawaiʻi Foodbank serves about 170,000 people every month — around twice as many as it served before the COVID-19 pandemic — because of the growing cost of living in the state.
Meanwhile, Congress and the Trump administration have cut millions of dollars in federal funding that organizations use to buy food — including $4 million that Hawaiʻi Foodbank would've used directly — and billions of dollars in programs like SNAP and Medicaid.
The state Legislature this year stepped in to fund nonprofits as a whole and specific food programs to fill in some of the gaps in funding left by actions on the federal level.
