When recent hurricanes and tropical storms knocked out power for hundreds of thousands of Hawaiʻi residents, food banks and hunger-relief partners across Hawaiʻi stepped in to provide food.
Hawaiʻi Foodbank doubled its monthly average of food distributions in the wake of hurricanes Lala, Lowell, and Nolo over the past couple of months, the nonprofit's CEO and president Amy Miller told Aloha State Daily last week. Headquartered in Honolulu, the organization normally distributes between 200,000 to 225,000 pounds of food per month — and in September alone, distribution jumped to 560,000 pounds of food.
Ahead of Hurricane Lala, Hawaiʻi Foodbank sent seven shipping containers of Survivor Daily Rations, 24-hour emergency meal kits that do not require refrigeration, to Hawaiʻi Island, two to Maui and one to Molokai, according to Miller.
On Oʻahu, power outages hit residents the hardest, Miller said, noting that the City and County of Honolulu provided $200,000 to Hawaiʻi Foodbank in August to help source and transport food for distribution on Oʻahu after Hurricane Lala.
“So many of our households are already food insecure or just on the brink," she said. "Losing a full fridge of food is not something many families can weather."
Miller said that the food bank worked to distribute nonperishable food in the immediate aftermath of the storm and later dispersed items like bread, milk, eggs and produce to restock fridges.
For Hurricane Lowell, which struck Kauaʻi on Sept. 7-8, she added that it was “really scary” because it knocked out electricity to approximately 91% of the island, leaving residents unable to purchase food and gasoline.
“We had no power at our warehouse, and if we hadn’t got it back on the day that we did, we risked not being able to power our pallet jacks or forklift,” Miller said.
Hawaiʻi Foodbank works with more than 250 hunger-relief partners and serves more than 160,000 people each month on Oʻahu and Kauaʻi, according to its website.
Leelen Park, communications and public relations director for The Food Basket on Hawaiʻi Island, told ASD that the food bank distributed nearly 1 million pounds of food in August. The food bank regularly serves about 60,000 people per month, and the emergency response to Hurricane Lala reached more than 30,000 people.
“With this storm, the majority of our island lost power and it really highlighted how fragile our infrastructure can be in the wake of a storm,” Park said.
For Park, Hurricane Lala showcased the devastation that a storm could cause, and gave people a better understanding of the need to prepare for future storms, like Hurricane Nolo at the time.
When Park directed traffic in front of their warehouse prior to Hurricane Nolo, he saw families who were scared and needed to prepare.
“Us being out there really gave them hope,” he said.
Maui Food Bank CEO Brandi Saragosa told ASD that while the food bank typically distributes about 550,000 pounds of food per month, the organization distributed more than 600,000 pounds of food per month to residents on Maui, Molokai and Lānaʻi in July, August and September of this year.
Saragosa said that there is a stigma against receiving help, but that help is for everyone.
“One of the contributing factors to the need following disasters as opposed to blue skies is there’s incredible food loss," she noted.
When Hāna went without power for days and helicopters flew in water and supplies, she recalled, private tour company Hawaiʻi By Storm volunteered to deliver food. After Hāna Highway was cleared, additional teams from the food bank worked collaboratively to deliver fresh food and disaster supplies.
“It was a kākoʻo effort,” she said. “The need grows but so does our response, not just from us but the community.”
Maui Food Bank relies on local farmers, or the “backbone of our food system,” for produce, Saragosa described. If farmers have a surplus, such as when restaurants or hotels close during and after storms, the organization will purchases the surplus.
“Maui Food Bank has stepped in multiple times during those situations to make sure they can still sell their produce, and [so] they don’t have to lose out financially,” she said.
In West Oʻahu, ʻElepaio Social Services — a nonprofit affiliate of the Waianae Coast Comprehensive Health Center, wholly owned by Waiʻanae District Comprehensive Health and Hospital Board Inc. — partners with Hawaiʻi Foodbank and local farms. The organization hosts five weekly kūpuna pantries and distributes emergency food after power outages and storms.
Cassidy Keola, director of community impact and engagement at ʻElepaio Social Services, told ASD that ʻElepaio distributed about 337,000 pounds of food to more than 2,900 households over seven emergency food distributions following Hurricanes Lala and Lowell.
“People are super grateful and appreciative [of] these food distributions,” Keola said. “It’s definitely a community-led effort. A lot of the people that are coming through these lines; they’re our families, they’re our neighbors, they’re our aunties and uncles.”
Alicia Higa serves as executive director of the nonprofit, whose mission is "to strengthen West Oʻahu ʻohana through Indigenous food sovereignty and access to origin-story foods — restoring people's relationship with ʻāina and food, nourishing families and cultivating community resilience for generations to come."
Food-relief organizations prepare for the future
Hawaiʻi Foodbank is already bolstering its supplies and coordinating with local farmers to prepare for future storms.
Miller told ASD that it can take food one to three weeks to reach Hawaiʻi from the Mainland depending on where it’s coming from, highlighting “how vulnerable we are in the middle of the ocean.”
One concern for the food bank now is for the economic aftermath of the storms.
A preliminary report, published in September from the Hawaiʻi Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism, found that total spending by visitors declined by 9.7% in August compared to August 2025, and the number of visitors dropped by 5.6%. With tourism down, people may lose their jobs which could impact the nonprofit's housing and power, per Miller.
Park noted that as the cost of living increases in the state, Hawaiʻi Food Basket more frequently hears of families choosing between paying for gas, food or medical expenses.
“This storm exacerbates all of that,” he said. “Almost half our island is food insecure, so having storms hit us makes matters a lot worse.”
Saragosa sees hope existing alongside anxiety when natural disasters reach the Islands.
For instance, Maui Food Bank set up a direct service market where Lahaina residents could choose what food they needed following the 2023 Maui wildfires. Saragosa said she saw families come together, talk story and heal. The market is still running today, and she calls it a “beacon of hope” for the Lahaina community.
“There’s a lot of fear about what’s coming next, what’s the next disaster, can I afford food, but there’s also a lot of hope,” she said, noting the food bank's role as the lead for food relief in partnership with local government, including Maui County Emergency Management Agency (MEMA).
“We’re going to bring this disaster hui together before the disaster happens,” she said.
Maui Food Bank is also visiting rural communities on Molokai and Hāna to examine their infrastructure and logistics, and prepare for future storms.
“We have to prepare now before it happens,” Saragosa said. “Because disaster doesn’t discriminate, neither should help."
Haley Lehman can be reached at haley@alohastatedaily.com.
For the latest news of Hawai‘i, sign up here for our free Daily Edition newsletter.
