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As college students, it’s hard to overlook inflation and what we in Hawaii routinely call “the price of paradise.” Food costs have risen nearly 40% and transportation costs have risen nearly 60% over the last 10 years.

The price of a plate lunch tops $20, and a box of cereal is $10 or more. Higher education costs, even at a public school like the University of Hawaii, are skyrocketing.

But there are less visible implications for these increased costs that worry us even more.

Demand has grown for government-provided early education and childcare, mental health and substance abuse treatment, housing the homeless, reducing domestic violence and many other health and human services.

The reality is that the government doesn’t actually provide these services as much as fund and oversee them. The real work is performed by local community-based nonprofit organizations.

EPIC Ohana, Catholic Charities Hawaii, Child and Family Services Hawaii, Parents and Children Together, the Domestic Violence Action Center and dozens of other organizations are Hawaii’ s safety net, providing services to nearly 500,000 children, adults, seniors and families every year.

Last week at the state Capitol, we heard a service provider talk about the economic strains on families, and therefore the programs that serve them. One of the organization CEOs reported to the House Finance Committee about preschool age students who say they want to kill themselves.

We hope that this is an extreme example, not a real threat, but it points to families under strain, and it breaks our hearts.

Part Of The Community

Nonprofit service providers have a long history in Hawaii and have become an integral part of our community. They provide food to low-income families and senior citizens, offer shelter to the houseless and at-risk youth, support victims of domestic violence, provide programs for foster children, and more.

The community-based organizations are here to help Hawaii’s most vulnerable. But they are vulnerable, too.

Rising prices have increased the cost of providing these programs and services, making it difficult — or impossible — for local organizations to continue to serve those most in need. For every program cutback or nonprofit that shudders its doors, real people suffer.

Funding for most health and human service government contracts has not been increased in the past decade. To be clear, the Legislature provided more funding.

But that funding went to serve more people, not to adjust payments for services already being provided. The need is great. The dilemma is stark: Increasing funding for existing services has been sacrificed to reach more people.

But we need to see with new eyes that the organizations can’t sustain what is essentially a cut. Prices go up, organizations get paid the same.

To make ends meet, the organizations conduct an endless round of fundraising. They cut administrative costs, undercut staff salaries, turn to the community for support and even take out loans just to continue to serve.

But it is never enough. We are at a tipping point.

Without action, programs and services are at risk of being reduced or eliminated. We’ve been helping these organizations tell their story at the Capitol.

Legislators have clearly taken the social services safety net warning signs to heart. Recent state budget proposals include an increase for funding child and adolescent mental health and a small increase for homeless shelters.

We have hope. Once you see the risks to our community’s safety net, you can’t unsee it.