AlohaCare donates $150,000 to Local Nonprofits

Logo courtesy of The Food Basket.

AlohaCare announced last week that it is donating $150,000 to local nonprofit organizations that are helping at-risk families and individuals impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The donation includes monetary contributions to food banks across the state, 28,800 KN95 masks for health care workers at community health centers and a grant for a new online platform to help identify areas of need in Hawai‘i.

“The needs in our community are so pressing right now,” said Francoise Culley-Trotman, AlohaCare interim CEO. “We want to help nonprofits that are directly supporting families and individuals on all Hawai‘i Islands who are struggling with food insecurity, domestic violence and access to health care.”

AlohaCare is a local, nonprofit health plan founded in 1994 by Hawai‘i’s community health centers and is the only local health plan solely dedicated to serving those eligible for Hawai‘i’s QUEST Integration (Medicaid) and Medicare program, according to an AlohaCare press release.

To support community health care workers, AlohaCare is donating 28,000 KN95 masks valued at $82,000 to Queen Emma Clinic, Maui Medical Group, Maui Memorial Medical Center and 16 community health centers. The Centers for Disease Control and the US Food and Drug Administration have both approved the use of KN95 masks when N95s are not available.

Along with the KN95 masks, AlohaCare is also donating iPads, Surface Pros, laptops and webcams valued at approximately $10,000 to Wahiawa Health to help the organization quickly expand its capacity to provide telehealth services.

Additionally, AlohaCare is donating $38,000 to five food collection and distribution organizations that are seeing an overwhelming demand for food: Hawai‘i Foodbank on Oahu, Hawai‘i Island Food Basket, Kauai Food Bank and Maui Food Basket, and Sustainable Molokai, which is using grants to purchase local food from island-based hunters, farmers, fishers and producers and distribute them to the most vulnerable residents. The donation to Hawai‘i Foodbank also includes 900 shopping bags.

“Neighbor island residents and those living in rural communities are having a particularly hard time and we want to make sure that resources were getting to them,” added Culley-Trotman.

To help victims of domestic violence, AlohaCare is donating $10,000 to the Domestic Violence Access Center to support a 24/7-texting service for victims to use during the state’s work-from-home/stay-at-home mandate.

AlohaCare is also providing a $10,000 grant to support Switchboard, a new online platform envisioned to identify and aggregate community needs for organizations and donors statewide. The Hawai‘i Alliance of Nonprofit Organizations, Hawai‘i Investment Ready and Next Gen Donor Hui are spearheading the initiative.