Beginning this month, people will be able to drop off non-perishable food donations to The Food Basket (formerly Hawaii Island Food Bank) Thursday through Sunday, 7 a.m.-5 p.m., at a table at the newest farmers market on the Big Island, Big K-Mart in Kona.
The Food Basket, Inc., is a clearinghouse for food and non-food items that retailers, wholesalers and farmers would normally discard, and for food donated by the community through food drives.
Food Basket staff drives to donor sites daily to collect items and deliver them to two warehouses, one in East Hawaii and one in West Hawaii, where staff and volunteers salvage usable products and store them for partner agencies.
This past year, more than 1.15 million pounds of food was distributed through The Food Basket’s network of 106 partner agencies. The effort serves about 6,000 people a month, while requests for food range from 14,000 to 16,000 per month.
Agencies distribute the food through meals, food boxes, to adults in homeless and abuse shelters, and to children in daycare and after-school programs. Most of the agencies have emergency food pantries for the hungry.
The Food Basket also operates its own weekly Senior Brown Bag Program at eight sites.
Contact Holly Nagasako at (808) 933-6020 to make a tax-deductible contribution.