Help Feed Oʻahu

Instead of letting your food go to waste, join Aloha Harvest in collecting and redistributing food to nourish and strengthen our community on Oʻahu.

With Your Help

26000000

pounds of food has been rescued since our operations began in November 1999!

Get involved in the rescue!

Donate Excess Food

Become a Recipient Agency

Volunteer

Donate Money

Feed the Hungry

In Hawaiʻi, 48% of families are food insecure.(1) Aloha Harvest acts as a collaborator with social service agencies to supply free food to the most vulnerable members of our community.

Need or know someone who needs assistance? Click this link to view our food assistance page.

Protect the Environment

In Hawaiʻi, 237,000 tons of food is wasted annually.(2) When dumped in landfills, food rots under anaerobic conditions, producing methane, a greenhouse gas at least 25x more potent than carbon dioxide. By diverting excess food from entering the waste stream, Aloha Harvest reduces our environmental footprint and our dependence on landfills.

On O'ahu, we incinerate our waste first and then dump the ash in a landfill. However, due to its high moisture content, burning food waste is highly inefficient since it requires more energy to process in the incinerator.

Boost the Economy

Hawaiʻi spends over $4.5 billion annually importing approximately 88% of its food, (3) making us vulnerable to events that disrupt shipping. The cost of our annual food waste comes out to about $1.025 billion annually.(2) Food rescue saves the state money and strengthens our
economy in both of these areas.

Sources:

(1) Pruitt, A. S., Zhang, W., Wu, Y., Bird, O., Nakamura, B. & Barile, J. P. (2021). Addressing Hunger & Food Insecurity among Hawai‘i’s Families. Prepared for the College of Social Sciences, UH Mānoa and First Insurance Company of Hawai‘i, Honolulu, H.I.

(2) Loke, Matthew K., and PingSun Leung. “Quantifying food waste in Hawaii’s food supply chain.” Waste Management & Research 33.12 (2015): 1076-1083.

(3) Loke, Matthew K., and PingSun Leung. “Hawai‘i’s food consumption and supply sources: benchmark estimates and measurement issues.” Agricultural and Food Economics 1 (2013): 1-18.