The River of Life Mission, which has been feeding the homeless and other low-income people in the Chinatown area, is being pressured to move its feeding operations to Iwilei. Can we devise something better than the traditional soup-kitchen model, with long lines of people waiting to get a free meal?

The fast-food chains provide useful services, especially with their low-cost menu items, but there is space for other options as well. It might be better for all concerned if everyone was asked to pay for their meals, at least a little, in a more business-like approach to feeding the poor.

A good model is provided by the popular per quilo, or per kilo, restaurants in Brazil. Customers go through a buffet line, select from salads, freshly prepared dishes and desserts, and pay based on the total weight of what they take. New “per ounce” restaurants in Hawaii could be open to all, but with subsidies provided to needy people through the use of debit cards from governmental or nongovernmental agencies. Some people would get the cards at a reduced cost. A few might get them free, but only for a limited time. These restaurants could be organized under the U.S. law for social benefit corporations. They could go a long way in restoring people’s dignity.

In some cases, the cost reduction of the debit card might be conditional, depending on the card holder’s actions. Some might have their debit cards refilled at a discount only if they come in for monthly health checkups or participate in a job training program. This would be a version of the conditional cash transfer systems commonly used in combating poverty.

Apart from the indirect subsidies through the debit card, per ounce restaurants could be supported more directly by using foods from food banks and draw from federal government surpluses such as the excess cheese being held in warehouses, and they could welcome volunteer workers.

The restaurants might be able to find locations with little or no rental cost, places that would not be available rent-free to ordinary commercial enterprises. Church spaces or community centers like the one in Waimanalo might be used. Offering the use of such spaces under clear contracts could be the community’s way of subsidizing the program at little cost to itself.

It might be possible to use school kitchen and cafeteria spaces, starting in the late afternoon. The potential is demonstrated by the Father’s Day breakfasts at Kaiser High School, organized by the Lions Club.

If new restaurants were fitted out with long tables and benches of the sort commonly used in school cafeterias, that would encourage good fellowship and community-building. The people who come in with reduced-cost debit cards would mix with those who pay cash or use full-cost debit cards.

These per-ounce restaurants could be privately owned, as they are in Brazil, but function under contracts with the government. There could be a standard contract, but with room for adapting to specific local circumstances in creative ways. Over time, ways might be found to coordinate the per ounce restaurants with related food programs at the city, state, and national levels.

If they are well-designed, these per ounce restaurants would be supported by existing restaurant and food businesses. Local leaders of fast-food chains and food markets should be invited to participate in the planning, along with representatives of Hawaii Foodbank, the Culinary Arts Program at Kapiolani Community College, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and other agencies, based on the shared objective of making more healthy food more readily available for more people.

George Kent, a professor emeritus of political science with the University of Hawaii, is involved in food policy issues.