Keaau Food Drop Draws More Than 3,000

By KELSEY WALLING Hawaii Tribune-Herald

Kelsey Walling/Tribune-Herald A child looks down at the boxes of food in the trunk while driving through an Ohana Food Drop by The Hawaii Food Basket at Keaau High School on Wednesday, April 7, 2021.

The Food Basket served 3,392 individuals Wednesday morning during an Ohana Food Drop at Keaau High School.

The Food Basket has been consistently providing bulk groceries to communities around Hawaii County for a year and is keeping up with the demand.

While numbers last month dipped slightly, about 200 more attended Keaau’s food drop this week.

“I think some increase has come from instances of people using their (stimulus) money to pay off a year’s worth of bills,” said Kristin Frost Albrecht, executive director of The Food Basket. “Some people are back in work, some are working part-time and have a backlog of bills that keep them underwater.”

Although many people have gone back to work since the beginning of the pandemic, the food drops still help families save funds for other things.

“We give out a lot of food, usually up to 100 pounds per family,” Frost Albrecht said. “That’s a couple weeks worth of groceries, which can make a huge difference for anyone.”

The next Ohana Food Drop will be Friday morning in Waimea at the Waimea District Park. The rest of the food drop calendar can be found at www.hawaiifoodbasket.org/.