State must help provide food security

One-and-a-quarter billion dollars. That’s how much Hawaiʻi received from the federal CARES Act to respond to the economic fallout caused by the pandemic.

This week, the Hawaiʻi Legislature reconvenes to decide the fate of $635 million from this pot. In a proposal announced on Friday, the Legislature laid out a plan to spend these funds. The bulk of the money would go toward unemployment insurance, rental assistance and support for certain small businesses.

The plan also calls for $5 million in food assistance to support families, run through the state’s Executive Office on Aging. While this is a start, it falls short of the $40 million in estimated need projected by the Working Families Coalition, which would include support for both families and for farmers to meet the need locally.

It cannot be overstated: The need for food is immense. The incredible spike in need has crippled Hawaiʻi’s supply chains and overwhelmed our emergency food networks.

In a cruel paradox, it is Hawaiʻi’s rural communities—those that produce our food—that are suffering the most. On Hawaiʻi island, nearly a quarter of the workforce is now unemployed, and it’s not whom you might expect: farm vans are lining up for food right alongside hospitality industry vehicles. In fact, The Food Basket (Hawaiʻi island’s Food Bank) has seen triple the volume of individuals seeking food assistance, and 75-85 percent of its clientele are now “first-time food bank users.”

Kūpuna are also particularly affected. Lanakila Meals on Wheels has seen an increase of over 30 percent in the number of seniors fed through its home-delivered meal service. In total, kūpuna-serving organizations have provided nearly 28,000 meals to 5,000 seniors a week on Oʻahu alone, according to numbers compiled by the Kūpuna Food Security Coalition.