Twenty months into the COVID-19 pandemic, local food-distributing organizations are still contending with an elevated demand for food assistance.

This year, through September, the Hawaii Foodbank, which distributes food out of locations on Oahu and Kauai, has provided assistance to an average of about 139,000 people per month — marking an increase of about 46% compared to the overall monthly average of some 95,300 people served during the same nine-month period in 2019.

“I still think folks are struggling to get back on their feet,” said Danny Schlag, Hawaii Foodbank’s director of marketing and communications. “Whether they went into debt during the pandemic or whether they’re … being impacted by the higher food prices, they’re still finding themselves in need of assistance.”

After the coronavirus essentially shut down the state economy in March 2020, leading to among the highest unemployment rates in the nation, Hawaii also was grouped among states with the highest projected rates of hunger in 2021.

Feeding America, a nonprofit that includes a nationwide network of some 200 food banks, projected Hawaii’s population to have a 15% food insecurity rate and a 6% “very low food security” rate, which is defined as having “reduced food intake and disrupted eating patterns.” Both projections are the nation’s ninth-highest.

Hawaii’s hunger profile is worse for children, for whom Feeding America has projected a 24.6% food insecurity rate this year — the second-highest ranking behind Louisiana, which has a projected rate of 26%.

While the demand for food assistance has decreased since the height of the pandemic threat, which touched off waves of workplace layoffs and furloughs here, the Hawaii Foodbank and others say the current need for their services is still up compared to pre-pandemic assistance levels.

On Hawaii island, Hawaii Food Basket Executive Director Kristin Frost Albrecht said about 40,000 to 45,000 people are being served monthly. That’s down from a high point of some 84,000 people during the most challenging pandemic month. But the current tally adds up to well over twice the count of some 14,000 people served monthly before the pandemic surfaced.

In the case of Maui Food Bank, about 20,000 people are being served per month, said Richard Yust, the food bank’s executive director. That’s a plummet from 60,000 during the pandemic’s initial months. However, like Hawaii island, the current demand still far exceeds pre-pandemic counts. In 2019, the Maui operation assisted some 13,000 people monthly.

On a national scale, some reports suggest that the surge in food insecurity is subsiding. According to the U.S. Census Bureau Household Pulse Surveys, as of October, 31% of respondents indicated that they were experiencing “low food security” or “very low food security.” That represents a slight improvement over the 44% in March.

There’s another key contributing factor for increased demand for food assistance: inflation bumping up prices for various groceries. In the Honolulu area, the price for meat, poultry, fish and eggs in September was 16.3% higher than the price tag in September 2020, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The American Farm Bureau estimated that, due largely to inflation and supply chain snags, this year’s Thanksgiving feast for a party of 10 will cost about 14% more than in 2020. Complicating the Maui Food Bank’s Thanksgiving food distribution this year is a turkey shortage.

“Last year at one distribution, the week before Thanksgiving I think we passed out 2,000 turkeys,” Yust said. “This year we’re at 1,200 turkeys. Plus, some people have donated turkeys, so those will be going out as well.”

In some parts of the country, pandemic-related supply chain issues and inflation prompted some food banks to stop buying higher-priced food items. Local organizations, meanwhile, say they’ve been able to meet increased demand with the help of federal funding, grants, donations and partnerships with local food sources, such as the Hawaii Farm Bureau and Hawaii Longline Association.

“We turned to our local food supply, and if it hadn’t been for our local food supply, we wouldn’t have been able to feed all the people that we did,” Albrecht said.

She said the Hawaii Food Basket distributed about 6 million pounds of food in 2020, and that’s likely to be the total this year as well. That’s three times more than the food that was distributed yearly before the pandemic.

HOLIDAY DONATION INFO

>> Hawaii Foodbank: The best way to help the Hawaii Foodbank this holiday season is by donating online at hawaiifoodbank.org/donate or signing up as a volunteer at hawaiifoodbank.org/volunteer. Donations can also be brought to the Oahu warehouse at 2611 Kilihau St. in Honolulu. The Kauai warehouse is located at 4241 Hanahao Place, Suite 101, in Lihue.

>> Maui Food Bank: A donation of $20 to the Maui Food Bank will provide holiday meal boxes to food-insecure families during the holiday season. More information can be found at mauifoodbank.org/event/holiday-meals/. Food dropoff locations can be found online at mauifoodbank.org/food-drop-off-locations/. The Maui Food Bank warehouse, located at 760 Kolu St. in Wailuku, also accepts perishable items such as fruits and vegetables.

>> Hawaii Food Basket: Donation information can be found at hawaiifoodbasket.org/donate. The Hawaii Food Basket is currently holding a turkey drive for the holiday season. Donors can donate money or turkeys. The Hilo warehouse at 40 Holomua St. and the Kona warehouse at 73-4161 Ulu Wini Place are accepting turkey donations and other food items.