Letter carriers gather donations for Hawaiʻi Island’s largest food drive

The National Association of Letter Carriers partnered with the Hawaiʻi Island Food Basket to collect food donations along mail routes for the food bank’s largest food drive on Saturday.

The effort was part of Hawaiʻi Island’s 33rd Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive, which is a nationwide initiative.

On average, the drive raises more than 30,000 pounds of canned goods, rice, instant noodles, and other nonperishable food items on Hawaiʻi Island alone.

“We partner with the post office who gathers all the food into trucks from the different routes that they take,” said Duryn Izumo, managing director at the Food Basket. “They bring the food over here to our warehouse then unload.”

On Saturday, volunteers from various groups unloaded the donations into carts and then sorted everything into categories. The Food Basket then weighed everything and put it into their system to disperse to the community food banks.

With 40% of Hawaiʻi Island residents experiencing food insecurity, food drives like this one are critical to meeting community needs.

“Today’s food drive is important in my opinion because of the economy,” said Mary Pedro, union president of the Hilo Post Office. “It’s not getting any easier and there’s a lot of families in need, especially here in Hawaiʻi.”

The Food Basket staff and volunteers echoed this sentiment, encouraging local residents to contribute whatever they can and reach out for assistance if they need it.

“You never know when it’s going to happen to you. You may think today I’m well off, but tomorrow you may be in that line for food,” said Ann Ebesuno, Food Basket board chair and volunteer. “So you never know, and we’re here for you.”

“No be shame, we are here to help you. That’s what we are here for. We are here to help,” added Fua Wilson, a warehouse worker at the Food Basket.

For information on the food pantry and other programs, visit The Hawaiʻi Island Food Basket website.