Even as Hawaii distances itself from the harshest effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, anti-hunger advocates say that elevated food insecurity among residents has not only persisted but is growing.

In a Wednesday discussion on the Honolulu Star-Advertiser’s “Spotlight Hawaii,” Amy Miller Marvin, president and CEO of Hawaii Foodbank, said the food bank is currently serving an average of about 125,000 people per month.

While that’s an improvement over the worst of the pandemic, it’s still a 25% increase from the number of people it was serving at this point last year.

“A year ago we were serving about 100,000 people on average, and right now we’re at about 125,000 (people). At the height of the pandemic we were at about 175,000 people, so we are definitely seeing those numbers tick up,” Marvin said.

The nonprofit, with warehouses on Oahu and Kauai, gathers food from producers, manufacturers and retailers and through food drives, and distributes the food to food pantries, homeless shelters and other programs and facilities. In 2022 it distributed 17.4 million pounds of food, including 4.6 million pounds of fresh produce, on the islands.

At the height of the COVID- 19 pandemic, Hawaii faced one of the country’s highest unemployment rates, leading to long lines of cars at food banks and food pantries.

But while the long lines have gone, food insecurity remains.

“Even though we don’t see it on the front pages as much anymore, the issue is still there, and we have not returned to pre-pandemic rates of food insecurity,” said Daniela Spoto, director of Anti-Hunger Initiatives for the Hawaii Appleseed Center for Law and Economic Justice, during Wednesday’s discussion.

The sustained level of food insecurity in Hawaii results from a variety of factors, mostly the isles’ high cost of living, inflation rates and other reasons that make it “hard to afford a healthy life.”

Spoto said food insecurity can be “invisible” and not as obvious as simply going without food.

“In some cases, it looks like just buying the cheapest food that’s out there, filling up on empty calories — instant Ramen, Spam, anything you can buy at the convenience store,” she said.

Many Hawaii households experiencing food insecurity include working families. About 30% of the households Hawaii Foodbank serves have employed individuals, Marvin said, but the cost of living in Hawaii is just too much to overcome. She said the cost of groceries grew about 25% between February 2020 and February 2023.

“These are families that have always been able to make ends meet,” she said. “Every month our numbers are ticking up, and we’re seeing people who have never had to ask for help before.”

There is now more of an effort to stop trying to “feed the need,” Spoto said, and instead there’s more focus on helping Hawaii families afford healthy food.

“One of the things that I think is really exciting is that, for the first time, the anti-hunger community in Hawaii has really been looking more at anti-poverty measures,” she said.

Spoto mentioned ambitious measures introduced in this year’s legislative session that would have supported those efforts, including universal lunches for all public school students in Hawaii and funding for food programs such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and for DA BUX. Both bills died during the session but have at least made the issue talking points at the state Capitol, she said.

Marvin, adding to that point, noted minimum wage increases, increased public awareness of food benefits and changes to Hawaii’s food system as also being beneficial to tackling food insecurity.

“Food insecurity in Hawaii is not that we don’t have enough food. It’s that we don’t have equitable access to food, that people don’t have the funds that they need to purchase the food to feed their families,” she said.