Hawaiʻi food insecurity persists post COVID-19

Even as Hawaiʻi distances itself from the harshest effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, anti-hunger advocates say that elevated food insecurity among residents has not only persisted but is growing.

In a Wednesday discussion on the Honolulu Star-Advertiser’s “Spotlight Hawaii,” Amy Miller Marvin, president and CEO of Hawaiʻi Foodbank, said the food bank is currently serving an average of about 125,000 people per month.

While that’s an improvement over the worst of the pandemic, it’s still a 25 percent increase from the number of people it was serving at this point last year.

“A year ago we were serving about 100,000 people on average, and right now we’re at about 125,000 [people]. At the height of the pandemic we were at about 175,000 people, so we are definitely seeing those numbers tick up,” Marvin said.

The nonprofit, with warehouses on Oʻahu and Kauaʻi, gathers food from producers, manufacturers and retailers and through food drives, and distributes the food to food pantries, homeless shelters and other programs and facilities. In 2022 it distributed 17.4 million pounds of food, including 4.6 million pounds of fresh produce, on the islands.

At the height of the COVID- 19 pandemic, Hawaiʻi faced one of the country’s highest unemployment rates, leading to long lines of cars at food banks and food pantries.

But while the long lines have gone, food insecurity remains.