Hunger doesn’t have a single face.
It can be your coworker who leaves her shift to start a second job as the sole provider for her family. It can be the disabled veteran who served his country but can’t make ends meet on Social Security.
It could be your child’s classmate, whose only meals during the week are the free breakfast, lunch and snacks provided at school. It could be your next-door neighbor, buried in medical debt after an unexpected injury, with little money left for food.
These people are our friends, our neighbors, our ‘ohana. Many face hunger in silence, reluctant to ask for help because of guilt or shame. But the reality is that anyone can experience hunger, and a single unexpected moment can mean the difference between stability and wondering where your next meal will come from.
“It probably wasn’t until I became a young mother myself. I worked full time; I went to school full time; and I started realizing that we weren’t making ends meet,” says Wai‘anae native Alicia Higa. “And as hard as I was trying, there just wasn’t enough.”
Prioritizing her children’s needs, Alicia often went without food herself when there wasn’t enough for everyone.
“I remember our refrigerator was bare, like nothing — condiments, I think. There was enough for me to put together a meal for my two kids,” she shares. “The main thing was my kids could eat, but I didn’t.”
She also recalls a friend extending a helping hand without even realizing it.
“I’ll never forget: one of my friends had called me, and she was like, ‘I just cleaned out my refrigerator, and my kids don’t like this shrimp wonton from Costco. Do you guys want it?’ And I just casually was like, ‘Oh, okay.’ But I really needed it because I didn’t eat that day.”
Years later, Alicia shared that story with the same friend.
“I said, ‘Do you remember that time where you gave me all that frozen stuff from your freezer?”
Her friend didn’t remember. For her, she had simply been cleaning out the freezer. But for Alicia, that small act of kindness meant she didn’t have to go to bed hungry that night.
Today, Alicia serves as the executive director of ‘Elepaio Social Services, an affiliate of the Wai‘anae Coast Comprehensive Health Center and a hunger-relief partner of Hawai‘i Foodbank.
Born during the COVID-19 pandemic, ‘Elepaio Social Services was established to address food insecurity on the Wai‘anae Coast and expand access to nutritious food for the community.
Today, the organization operates Food 4 Keiki School Pantries at every public and charter school on the coast, along with five Kūpuna Pantries each week, serving thousands of keiki, kūpuna and families.
“I’ve already had the lived experience and I know what the struggles are, and it makes it second nature for me to be able to create programs that I know will work within our community,” explains Alicia.
When I look at community and I go to our farmers’ markets or I go out to our pantries, those are people I grew up with. These are their parents. These are their kids. It’s personal.
It’s about more than feeding people.
“When I look at community and I go to our farmers’ markets or I go out to our pantries, those are people I grew up with. These are their parents. These are their kids. It’s personal. These are people I know and I love and I care about. And for the ones that I don’t know, I love them just as much, too,” Alicia says.
With partners like ‘Elepaio Social Services, Hawai‘i Foodbank works every day to provide nutritious food across the community and remove barriers that keep our ‘ohana from accessing the nourishment they need to thrive.
“Today it’s a kākou thing. We all need to work together to uplift each other. It’s not just that you’re out on your own or have to do it all by yourself, because you don’t,” Alicia affirms. “You don’t have to do it all by yourself.”
No matter who you are, where you’re from or what you’re going through, Hawai‘i Foodbank is here for you.
Hawai‘i Foodbank is for everyone.
Learn more at HawaiiFoodbank.org/psa
