Food resources for resilient Punawebbers

[HiloJulie]

SNAP Hot Food Purchase Waiver Approved Statewide Through May 16th.  Purchase hot and prepared foods with your EBT card from now through May 16th due to ongoing impacts from the March 2026 Kona Low weather events.

I guess one could say, that for the time being, "get it while its hot" applies to both SNAP benefits and food.

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

This is part of the food pantry line at HPP Community Center today.
It extends from Maku’u Drive to the Community Center building in the back.
It also continues and turns at the side street off Maku’u with more cars waiting as far as the eye can see.

Last I heard we have a surplus of food in this country.  It's too bad there isn’t a program or a system in which that surplus food could be transported to people who are willing to wait in line for an hour (or more?) so they have enough to eat.  

   

[ironyak]

Any chance you can contextualize this Edge? Longer line than it's been recently? Or as compared to the last few years? Similar to the height of the pandemic? Other comparisons?

As for a system for distribution, you seem to be looking at it - soup lines with car-centric infrastructure.

"Carloads of oranges dumped on the ground. The people came for miles to take the fruit, but this could not be. How would they buy oranges at twenty cents a dozen if they could drive out and pick them up? And men with hoses squirt kerosene on the oranges, and they are angry at the crime, angry at the people who have come to take the fruit. A million people hungry, needing the fruit- and kerosene sprayed over the golden mountains. And the smell of rot fills the country.
...
There is a crime here that goes beyond denunciation. There is a sorrow here that weeping cannot symbolize. There is a failure here that topples all our success. The fertile earth, the straight tree rows, the sturdy trunks, and the ripe fruit. And children dying of pellagra must die because a profit cannot be taken from an orange.
...
in the eyes of the hungry there is a growing wrath. In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage.” - John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

Any chance you can contextualize this 

I don’t drive by there often, today and a month or two ago on my way to Pahoa.  So there’s no way I could make any kind of an educated comparison.  The last two instances were similar.  

It seems like a lot of people.

[Punatang]

To go straight to the food and resources click here:

TAKE ME TO THE FOOD!!

[MyManao]

got all fancy with font sizes, colors, and whatnots..

Ah, deja vu

You know, I really like movies that have that circle back to the beginning schtick.. so cool. But here? It's sorta like being force-fed.. sorta like that whole you can't have dessert until you eat your veggies kinda thing. But hey cool that you figured out how to style your posts, 'Tang.. and as always thanks for the heads up.

[Punatang]

https://mailchi.mp/hawaiicounty/news-rel...od-service


Parks and Recreation Offering Meals for Keiki Through USDA Summer Food Service Program

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

June 5, 2026

The County of Hawaii Department of Parks and Recreation is participating in the USDA Summer Food Service Program, making nutritious meals available to children 18 and younger at no charge during the summer break

Meals will be provided Monday-Friday from June 8 through July 17 at the following Parks and Recreation sites:

View meal site locations list at link: https://mailchi.mp/hawaiicounty/news-rel...od-service

Children in Parks and Recreation's Summer Fun Programs at these sites will have the opportunity to receive meals. In addition, children who are not participating in the Summer Fun Program can receive meals at these sites by calling the facilities daily by 8 a.m. to ensure the program will serve meals on that day and to place an order.

Sites will be closed on June 11 (Kamehameha Day) and July 3 (Independence Day Observed) and will not serve meals on excursion days. 

No vendors submitted bids to provide meals at the other nine Summer Fun Program sites. The State of Hawaii Department of Education is also participating in the USDA Summer Food Service Program and offers meals at many schools in Hawaii County.

Visit the USDA Sitefinder webpage for information about the Summer Meals locations, including contact information and times, at www.fns.usda.gov/sfsp/sitefinder.

For questions about the Summer Food Service Program offered through Parks and Recreation, call 808-961-8681.

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

I think they ran out of food last month:

   

[randomq]

I don't know about the HPP pantry, but some take home baked goods, if you are so inclined.

[HiloJulie]

I think they ran out of food last month:
(From the posted flyer) "Every month record number served"

I find it quite unfortunate, and a bit insidious that this Food Pantry business model consistently is faced with a demand much greater than the supply.