Da Bux food program wants $3M to expand

Advocates and leaders of Hawaii’s Da Bux program are asking the state Legislature to provide $3 million in funding to help expand its efforts to support farmers and make locally grown fruits and vegetables more affordable for lower-income residents.

Under the statewide program, administered by The Food Basket, Hawaii island’s food bank, participating food retailers provide a 50% discount on locally grown produce to consumers paying with Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, benefits, more commonly known as food stamps. The retailers are then reimbursed by the program for the discounts.

An estimated $2.27 million in discounts were offered to SNAP users through Da Bux in 2022, and $4.55 million in local food sales were driven by Da Bux, the program reported.

The $3 million the program is asking for this year would go toward a 100% matching federal grant from the Gus Schumacher Nutrition Incentive Program, or GusNIP, which aims to help low-income residents afford fresh fruits and vegetables.

The $6 million in total funding would enable Da Bux’s expansion, a requirement of the GusNIP grants.

“We turn to philanthropy a lot … but at some point we need other sources of matched funding,” said Kristin Frost Albrecht, executive director of The Food Basket.

The state allocated $94,000 in 2019 and $500,000 in federal funding to Da Bux during the COVID-19 pandemic, but state support has been otherwise sparse.

Da Bux participants currently include nearly 60 retailers statewide, including seven Foodland stores. The proposed expansion would notably include the remaining 20 or so Foodland locations, according to the program.

Program officials also desire more stable funding from the state. What that amount should be is still being figured out, although a suggested $1 million per year has been floated by program managers.

“Something that you can rely on — (like if) we know this $1 million is going to come in every year for three years — that creates a huge relief,” said Chelsea Takahashi, director of Healthy Food Access Initiatives for The Food Basket. “You can do better planning, too. It’s kind of a financial security to know that money’s coming in and you know your program’s going to survive.”

By most metrics, the demand for SNAP and Da Bux has grown since the pandemic hit Hawaii’s economy in 2020. The tourism- dependent state experienced historic unemployment as travel to and from Hawaii essentially stopped and residents were already struggling to afford living in Hawaii and turned to the federal program for aid.

While the state’s economy has largely recovered from the pandemic, ongoing inflation is still hurting locals, and demand for programs like Da Bux remains high.

For fiscal year 2022, an average of about 178,500 people received SNAP benefits every month, according to records from the state Department of Human Serv­ices. While that’s down from the roughly 188,000 monthly average during fiscal year 2021, when the pandemic was in full swing, it’s still above the 159,700 monthly average of SNAP users during fiscal year 2020.

GusNIP does not require produce to be locally grown but Da Bux made that a requirement for its program to support local farming.

Offering discounts to customers, but not at producers’ expense, has been a boon for local farmers like Ryan Earehart, owner of Okoa Farms in Kula, Maui.

“Absolutely it helps us increase our sales because we have a bigger reach. It levels the playing field for imported produce from the mainland,” Earehart said. “This program is not a discount for stuff. It directly supports the local agriculture industry.”

Albrecht said there is already support within the state Legislature to provide funding for Da Bux.