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Nearly one in three households in Hawaii are struggling with food insecurity, meaning there isn’t enough food for everyone in the household to live a healthy, active life. These families are faced with what we at Hawaii Foodbank call impossible choices — forced to choose between putting food on the table and other necessities like housing, medicine, education and electricity.

Across our hunger-relief network, we are seeing more and more people seeking food assistance for the very first time. These are working families, sometimes holding down multiple jobs; people who have always been able to make ends meet, until now.

In order to better understand our current situation, commissioned a study to explore food insecurity within Hawaii’s unique context. Overall, we found that 30% of Hawaii households experienced food insecurity in 2023 — an alarmingly high number. Even more worrisome, approximately one in ten households are regularly going without food for whole days at a time, including 6% of our keiki.

In addition to skipping meals and pivoting to less healthy (and less expensive) food choices, our food insecure neighbors also reported delaying filling prescriptions and taking less medicine in order to save money for food.

Hawaii Foodbank’s service numbers peaked during the Covid-19 pandemic, but began to stabilize with expanded federal and local programs. However, as these programs ended and the cost of food continues to rise — we’ve seen a 29% increase here in Hawaii since March 2020 — food insecurity has climbed once again. Today, we are serving almost as many people as we did during the heights of Covid, with no end in sight.

Food insecurity is rarely an isolated issue. In a high cost of living place like Hawaii, it is intrinsically connected to the costs of housing, healthcare, transportation and other basic needs.

Food insecurity is also linked to numerous adverse social and health outcomes. In our report, more than half of food insecure respondents also rated their health as poor or very poor, and study after study has shown the linkages between food insecurity and chronic diseases like diabetes, heart disease and cancer.

Food insecurity is a very real public health crisis, directly affecting 30% of our households. The current situation is simply unacceptable.

Everyone deserves access to safe and healthy food. When our neighbors struggle with hunger, we all feel the impact. Without proper nutrition, children cannot learn, and adults cannot focus at work, care for their families, or prioritize their health.

Hunger is both a cause and a consequence of many other issues facing our islands today. Addressing food insecurity is a vital step towards building a brighter future for our islands, and it will take a committed and collaborative effort to ensure all in our state have access to this basic human need.

Hawaii Foodbank is part of a broad network — including our affiliate food banks, hundreds of agency partners, and thousands of volunteers and donors — who are all working together in the fight against hunger in Hawaii.

Last fiscal year, we provided more than 17.7 million meals and served an average of 160,000 people each month on the islands we directly serve. Besides food distributions, we manage a variety of programs focused on providing support for some of our most vulnerable populations, including kūpuna and keiki, and our affiliate food banks and agencies are critical partners in this work.

However, the charitable sector cannot fight food insecurity alone. As we continue working to maintain and expand our programs, we need your support to fulfill this growing need.

Food insecurity is a symptom of economic hardship and structural disparity, and must be addressed as a shared community responsibility. We urge everyone to join us in the fight against hunger by donating funds or food, volunteering your time, or advocating for local food banks and bringing awareness to this important issue.

Together, we will create powerful and lasting change — one meal at a time.