A new food bank that opened Friday at the Waipio Soccer Complex saw more than 400 families line up for fresh produce, milk, eggs, bread and canned goods after most experienced a loss of wages or employment, according to the Hawai‘i Foodbank.

Collectively, all the people in line represented 1,800 individual family members.

A third of them said they had come due to today’s expected suspension of federal SNAP benefits. The other two-thirds who lined up for food had lost jobs or incomes, suggesting many of them were federal employees working without paychecks.

In response to the suspension of SNAP benefits and in the midst of the federal government shutdown, the state has provided $2 million to the Hawai‘i Foodbank to distribute to its partner food banks across the state.

Lt. Gov. Sylvia L

See Full Page