Stamp Out Hunger drive bolsters Food Basket amid island food insecurity

At the Hilo warehouse, food from routes across Hawaii Island passed through a volunteer line built for a crisis that has not eased: the Food Basket says about 40% of island residents are still experiencing food insecurity. The annual Stamp Out Hunger drive once again showed that on Hawaii Island, emergency food relief depends on fast-moving neighborhood donations and a labor-intensive local network.

The Food Basket and the National Association of Letter Carriers marked their 33rd year of collaboration on the island with the drive held Saturday, May 9. Organizers said the effort typically brings in more than 30,000 pounds of canned goods, rice, instant noodles and other nonperishable items, food that stays on the island and moves directly into the local safety net.

The operation at the Hilo warehouse made the scale clear. Postal workers gathered food from routes across the island and brought it in, then volunteers from several groups unloaded, sorted, weighed and entered the donations into the distribution system. Duryn Izumo, the Food Basket’s managing director, said the post office collects food from different routes and delivers it to the warehouse, where volunteers separate everything into categories before it is dispersed.

Mary Pedro, the Hilo Post Office union president, said families are feeling more strain as the economy tightens. Ann Ebesuno, the Food Basket board chair and a volunteer, pointed to the uncertainty many households face, where one bad month can quickly turn into a need for help.

The drive has grown into a dependable annual valve for that pressure. The National Association of Letter Carriers says Stamp Out Hunger began in 1993 and is held every year on the second Saturday in May as the nation’s largest one-day food drive. It says donations left by the mailbox go to local nonprofit food agencies and remain in the community, with voluntary participation from letter carriers.

The stakes on Hawaii Island remain unusually high. The Food Basket’s 2024-2025 food insecurity report says the crisis continues to outpace wages, with Hawaii and Maui counties in the low 40% range. The organization also reported that households with children experiencing food shortages because of financial constraints rose from 29% to 34%. Big Island reporting last year put Hawaii Island households with food insecurity above 40% in 2023, the highest rate in the state.

That burden comes as the Food Basket says roughly half of its overall budget comes from U.S. Department of Agriculture funding. Alongside the annual food drive, the nonprofit is building a five-year community food security plan for Hawaii Island, a sign that one-day collections, even at more than 30,000 pounds, are still only one part of a much larger fight.