The Food Basket Inc

To address future hunger issues, we continued our efforts on our agricultural innovation park and food system campus, ho'olako, and were awarded a 1.6 million federal grant from the department of housing and urban development (hud). These funds will assist with accessibility to our 24.5 acres of land and the preparation of our own farm plots, and smaller plots which will be leased to local farmers, as well as the creation of a farmer's market. The name of "ho'olako" (in hawaiian, meaning 'the place that provides') was gifted as a name for the campus by our community's elders in a cultural ceremony on the property. Ho'olako is envisioned as a community gathering place grounded in a shared belief that our community deserves safe, nutritious, fair, and affordable food. The campus will include agriculture crops, a community food center and food bank, a state- of-the-art food innovation center and provide opportunities for food processing and distribution; farm and business incubation; agriculture training and production; cultural and educational programs.

Da bux double up food bucks program continued operations across the state and was available at 71 retail sites, including grocery stores, food hubs, farmer's markets and csas. In 2024, we were awarded a nearly 8.5 million federal grant (almost 17 million with matching funds, including 2 million from the state of hawaii). The program issued over 2.6 million in food nutrition incentives on hawai'i grown fruits and vegetables, with 510 local farms providing produce for the program. It is estimated that over 150,000 snap recipients participate in the program state-wide. Da bux continued its keiki nutrition program with child-based nutrition education books in 'olelo hawai'i (hawaiian) as part of the kai & hoku explore foods of hawaii series, to help families and educators explore local fruits and vegetables with children and to address the trend of high percentages of obesity and chronic diet related diseases among hawai'i's socioeconomically disadvantaged populations.

2024 was the inaugural year for our new program, na kuke 'opio ("the young cook"), a hands-on cooking and nutrition program rooted in hawai'i's food traditions and values. In 2024, the program engaged over 800 keiki across the state - from rural communities like hana and pahala to urban neighborhoods in kalihi and lihu'e - building lifelong skills while connecting families to hawai'i-grown ingredients. Funded by the gus schumacher nutrition incentive program (gusnip), na kuku 'opio thrives through collaborations with community partners including the center for getting things started, grow some good, ma ka hana ka 'ike, ymca of honolulu, farm to keiki, and uh manoa's ctahr programs. In 2024 our kokua harvest program gleaned over 60,000 pounds of fresh produce. Kokua harvest is a community-driven gleaning project that works to reduce food waste at the source, strengthen community ties, and improve access to fresh, nutritious fruits and vegetables for all. Kokua harvest recruits volunteers to harvest excess fresh produce from farmers and gardeners that would otherwise go to waste and redistribute the produce back into the community through food distributions to those in need, shelters, schools, and community fruit stands. The program conducted over 300 harvests with nearly 600 volunteers participating.