Latest USDA cuts will harm Hawaiʻi’s food security, from farmers to kids

Hawaiʻi farmers and hunger advocates are calling on the Legislature to plug new holes in food security as the Trump administration culls federal initiatives that help feed children and bolster the local food supply.

The $1 billion halt in federal food spending includes about $660 million for two key U.S. Department of Agriculture programs that give schools and food banks money to buy produce from local farmers.

The nixed federal program will drain a pot of about $3 million to Hawaiʻi schools, emergency feeding organizations and the local food system this year, money that advocates had hoped would continue to benefit a state where 1 in 10 households often go entire days without food and residents already feel the pressures of increasing living and food costs.

Without that money, and with millions more in cuts anticipated, advocates are pleading for state lawmakers to set aside funding and establish similar programs at the state level.

“For what it’s worth, this is not the first nor will it be the last,” Hawai‘i Agriculture Director Sharon Hurd said of the cuts. “It’s just an ‘I don’t know what’s next’ kind of atmosphere.”