New Year, New Wheels

As Hawai’i Island’s only food bank, The Food Basket, Inc. – Hawai`i Island Bank has been providing continuous emergency hunger relief for 27 years.  The Food Basket is committed to serving the residents of Hawai`i Island, a county which continues to trail every other county in the State with regard to income, employment, food access, and general opportunity. 

The Food Basket is seeking the public’s help in acquiring two new vehicles, a refrigerated box truck and a refrigerated cargo van.

Our vehicles are essential to providing crucial safety net services to Hawai`i Island residents, including ongoing hunger relief for over 12,000 unduplicated individuals monthly and as emergency response transport during times of natural disaster emergencies. 

In 2016, The Food Basket traveled over 130,000 “food miles,” picking up and delivering over 1.4 million pounds of food. Our current vehicles are not mechanically reliable enough to cover the 4,028 square miles that we service, often requiring staff to use their own vehicles for deliveries.

Maintenance costs and rental expenses are rising sharply to compensate for out of service vehicles.  Of our five vehicles serving the entire island, only one is equipped with working refrigeration, providing additional challenges in maintaining the quality and safety of fresh food during transport. Only one of those vehicles is a model made in the past decade.

We are seeking your support to help keep us on the road.

The Food Basket is aiming to reach the $150,000 goal by July 31 in order to have these vehicles in use by the end of the year. We need your help today.