Her cart was far from full. It had two single-serve boxes of rice and some soda, with plenty of space for the bread, milk, juice and cereal she planned to pull from the shelves.
“The prices are higher, and we have to really stretch our food,” Andrews said. “Toward the end of the month, we’re getting to the nitty gritty.”
According to a newly released report, Andrews is part of an alarming increase in households prone to hunger. More than a third of Hawaiʻi households with children lacked access to enough food to live an active healthy life, the Hawaiʻi Food Bank Hui found, up from 29% in 2023.
That report, conducted from mid-2024 to mid-2025 and published Monday, presents a gloomy picture of a food security landscape that Hawai’i anti-hunger advocates say has only gotten worse in the wake of the 43-day federal government shutdown. Now, more stringent requirements loom over tens of thousands of beneficiaries of the federally funded Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.
The report found Filipino households the most food insecure in Hawaiʻi, at 47%, closely followed by Hispanic, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander communities. The Filipino community accounts for almost one-quarter of the state’s population.
The Hawaiʻi Food Bank Hui also pointed to the concerning number of parents skipping meals to ensure their kids don’t go hungry, with 45% of parents reporting food insecurity.
“We all suspect that it’s much worse,” Agriculture Stewardship Hawaiʻi food systems director Amanda Shaw said. “It’s really hard to hear, but it’s important.”
Last month, food security advocates told lawmakers they were at a crisis point, facing surging demand from approximately 16,000 furloughed federal workers and a freeze on SNAP funding, on top of record demand from the general population.
Andrews, of Samoan and Native Hawaiian descent, gets about $430 a month in federal SNAP support, which helps her make ends meet while she works part-time. She often finds herself looking for food handouts.
The strain on food banks has had a tangible effect on her. While in the past she’s received three bags of fruit, vegetables and loaves of bread per visit, it’s now just one.
Advocates also forecast increasing pressure on other services, such as school meal programs, as families try to make ends meet and the federal government continues to shrink the safety net.
“These economic disasters are stark reminders of how many families are just one or two paychecks away from needing help to put food on the table,” Hawaiʻi Foodbank CEO Amy Miller said in a press release Monday. “With the implementation of drastic reductions in SNAP and Medicaid looming, we know we will see the need continue to deepen in our communities.”
That need is already deep, especially on the Big Island and throughout Maui County, where more than 40% of households are food insecure, according to the new report. On Maui, that reflected a 10% increase over the previous year.
Maui Foodbank CEO Lisa Paulson attributed the increase to the lingering effects of the Lahaina fire, cuts to SNAP and the government shutdown, which place “extraordinary strain on our community.”
The Politics of Food
Andrews works part-time at Walmart, stocking shelves to help make do after her monthly SNAP payment runs out.
She faced the prospect of a zeroed out balance on her EBT card because of the federal government shutdown this month, so the $250 she received under the Hawaiʻi Emergency Food Assistance Program — a one-time payment released by Gov. Josh Green in response to the SNAP funding crisis — was especially helpful.
But now Andrews, like many, may have to reapply for her benefits as the Trump administration continues to crack down on the benefit.
U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins told Newsmax last week that the program is “rife with fraud and corruption” and that thousands of recipients were dead but still receiving checks. The administration plans to rebuild the program and ensure every SNAP recipient is “vulnerable and they can’t survive without it,” Rollins said.
(Courtesy: Hawaii Foodbank/2024)
The move makes in-state hunger data all-the-more important, according to Shaw of Agriculture Stewardship Hawaiʻi, especially as the state continues to seek ways to address food insecurity.
While the state injected funding into the SNAP program this month in response to federal funds being frozen, the Legislature added $1 million to a new program aimed at helping food banks buy locally grown produce.
In Hawaiʻi, it’s not just an issue for people unable to work. The high cost of living here creates a difficult situation for many workers, as evidenced by 35% of Hawaiʻi residents being categorized as ALICE households — “Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed” — that do not fall below the federal poverty line.
For Shaw, who also works as the state food systems coordinator, the report’s findings illustrate a need for more discussions about what the state can do to help address hunger across the islands.
“I guess it makes me wonder,” Shaw told Civil Beat. “What should our goals be in Hawaiʻi, about zero hunger?”
Searching for Food Security
With a 6-year-old and a 3-year-old, the price of milk is always a shock for Melody Kaolulo and Khyra Alapai, who have watched their benefits drop as the cost of food increases.
“Nowadays, I’ve just been buying what we need,” Kaolulo said. “I used to stock it up, but now, because everything is so crazy, I just buy along as we go.”
The $1,000 in SNAP the couple receives each month — down $300 from earlier this year — just covers the family’s immediate food needs. They also receive Women, Infants, and Children money, which helps with milk for their kids, and their 6-year-old gets free lunches at school.
Currently, children of families that receive SNAP automatically qualify for free school meals. But the federal government’s changes to SNAP eligibility requirements could prevent more than 900 Hawaiʻi students from automatically getting access to the breakfasts and lunches. At the same time, the state has increased eligibility for students, creating a complex situation that may leave families confused.
Families can still apply for free and reduced-price school meals through an online form.
Schools in low-income areas — which are partially determined by rates of families receiving SNAP benefits — can automatically provide all students with free school meals under one federal program. But roughly 46,000 Hawaii students are attending schools that may stop participating in that program, according to a recent analysis from the Urban Institute.
SNAP beneficiaries with children over 14 years old will be required to prove they work at least 20 hours a week under new federal requirements, among other things. Given the high cost of living, Daniela Spoto of Hawaiʻi Appleseed says that will not necessarily create a large downturn in recipients in Hawaiʻi.
But new form requirements for such things as proof of employment may leave some residents reticent to follow through, particularly families feeling the chilling effects of Trump’s immigration sweeps.
Schools had already faced a surge in demand for free and reduced-price meals, receiving roughly 2,200 applications this fall, compared to 767 last fall, education superintendent Keith Hayashi recently told the Board of Education.
State lawmakers passed a bill earlier this year expanding the eligibility requirements for free school meals to at least 11,000 additional students, according to education department estimates, and prohibiting schools from denying kids food.
Kaolulo and Alapai recognize they receive slightly more than most, between their two sources of benefits, and they are both gainfully employed. Sometimes they can even afford to let their children pick a treat, although those are always the first items to be sacrificed in leaner weeks.
They are still carefully watching their grocery budget, waiting to see what the federal government will do next.
“You don’t know if we’re going to get it next month,” Kaolulo said. “So whatever I did get, I’m pretty much making it stretch.”
This story first appeared in Honolulu Civil Beat. Read the original here.
