The Food Basket Inc

“The annual tax returns are reviewed by the accountant, treasurer, chairman of the board and the executive director. Presentations are made to the finance committee with highlights presented to the entire board of directors.”

“The food basket requires minutes of the board of directors to contain names of persons who have disclosed or were to have found a financial interest. Also, on an annual basis, each director, principal officer and member of the board will sign a statement which affirms that person to have a copy of the conflict of interest policy, read the policy and agree to its contents. Periodic reviews are made.”

“The board of directors reviews and decides on the compensation for the executive director.”

“The board of directors reviews and decides on the compensation for officers.”

“Documents are available upon request.”

“The mission of the organization is to feed the hungry in hawaii county while attending to the root causes of this critical social problem. The food basket accomplishes its mission by preventing the waste of all edible food in hawaii county, feeding the hungry with this food, educating the community about local hunger and what can be done to solve this social problem, and collaborating with organizations of partnering missions to eradicate the root of hunger and other social ills: poverty.”

“In 2024 the food basket continued its mission to end hunger in hawaii through several emergency food programs. With the help of over 100 partner agencies, including churches, soup kitchens, homeless outreach programs and shelters, we distributed over three million pounds of food to over 600,000 individuals island wide. We served 1,361 qualifying seniors per month through our kupuna pantry program by delivering 30-35 pounds of staple food items received from the usda commodity supplemental food program (csfp) as well as separately funded hawaii island grown local produce and locally produced proteins. We provided food to 21,954 students through the keiki backpack program and to 21,542 students and their family members through the school pantry programs. With our emergency food boxes, distributed on weekdays at our hilo and kona warehouse locations, we assisted 46,701 individuals in need. Our mission to end hunger in hawai'i grows, even after the covid-19 pandemic, and as we see food costs rise, estimated at a 25% increase over the past three years. Through a partnership with the state of hawaii department of human services (dhs), our supplemental nutrition assistance program (snap) outreach team delivers snap eligibility pre-screening and step-by-step application assistance across hawai'i island. In 2024, we distributed 630 applications and assisted nearly 1,000 people with their snap application. Once individuals become beneficiaries of snap, they qualify for da bux double up food bucks, our state-wide program providing a 50% discount on purchases of hawai'i grown fruits and vegetables.”

“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.”

“Contracts - program related 2,679,702 0 0 other contractors 135,576 7,511 57,356 total 2,815,278 7,511 57,356”