An infusion of fire aid is changing how the Maui Food Bank does business

Associated Press

28-07-2025

Nearly two years after the devastating Maui wildfires, the county's only food bank is better equipped to feed people at risk of hunger on the Valley Isle, Molokaʻi and Lānaʻi even as the need expands from fire survivors to include a growing number of middle-income families.
That's thanks to an outpouring of disaster relief that boosted the Maui Food Bank's revenues to $77.6 million in fiscal year 2024, an eightfold increase from the year before the Aug. 8, 2023, fires that killed 102 people and left more than 12,000 homeless and struggling to obtain basic necessities. Roughly $65 million of that revenue is donations for wildfire recovery.
The nonprofit has so far spent roughly $15 million to hire more staff, buy more food from local farmers, award grants to the soup kitchens and senior living facilities helping it distribute food and maintain a Lahaina distribution warehouse with an attached grocery store-style experience focused on feeding wildfire survivors with dignity in West Maui.
The agency knows the windfall is likely temporary; it expects to retain only about 10% of the new donors that have poured money into its coffers from around the world.
Anticipating this funding cliff, the nonprofit is holding onto a large chunk of funds as it makes plans to build a 35,000-square-foot home base more than twice the combined size of the three warehouses it currently operates in Kahului, Wailuku and Lahaina.
'A new facility is paramount to serving the community in the best way possible,' Maui Food Bank CEO Lisa Paulson said. 'For one thing, the facility will have loading docks. Currently we don't have any loading docks.'
Maui Food Bank's revenues sprung from about $9.5 million in the fiscal year that ended on June 30, 2023, to $77.6 million in fiscal year 2024, according to its most recent IRS Form 990s. That's more than the combined revenues for the Hawaiʻi Food Bank — which operates on Oʻahu and Kauaʻi — and The Food Basket on the Big Island, which took in $47.4 million and $15 million, respectively.
Paulson, who assumed her role a day after the first anniversary of the fires, said the nonprofit is in talks with two landowners as it narrows the search for a parcel to build its new headquarters and distribution center. She declined to estimate how much the new facility might cost, but said the goal is to strengthen the ability of Maui County's primary safety net for hunger relief to feed residents for years to come.
Improving Disaster Readiness
A new facility has long been on the nonprofit's wishlist. The 2023 wildfires made it apparent that the organization's current setup — three warehouses without loading docks separated by miles — isn't conducive to efficiently serve growing hunger needs or withstand the next disaster, Paulson said.
Food banks have increasingly become key stakeholders in statewide disaster response planning, said Albie Miles, assistant professor of sustainable community food systems at the University of Hawaiʻi West Oʻahu.
It took many federal and state disaster relief agencies, including the Federal Emergency Management Agency, five days to turn up after the fires, Miles said.
Meanwhile, the Maui community, including the food bank, had to step in to fill the vacuum, according to a report by the Maui Emergency Feeding Task Force that was established to address gaping holes in disaster food distribution relief efforts.
'There's not a well coordinated statewide emergency feeding plan so the counties are still really critical in disaster response and food banks need their partners who have the relationships in the communities to really be the ones to get the food to residents who need it,' state food system planner Amanda Shaw said. 'We couldn't feed anybody in any of these disasters without those relationships.'
To that end, Maui Food Bank injected a substantial share of its disaster relief donations into grants to improve the capacity of 170 distribution partners and programs that deliver food from its warehouses in Kahului and Wailuku to people in need. These organizations, including soup kitchens and senior living facilities, play a leading role in developing crucial community relationships and getting food in the hands of people who need it.
Another chunk of the $15 million in disaster funds already spent went directly to 41 local farmers and ranchers who supply the food bank with produce and protein. Mainland imports supply most of the nonprofit's food haul. Before the wildfires, the nonprofit brought in about nine shipping containers of food a year. That shot up to about 65 containers in the year that followed the fires, according to Paulson.
Now the food bank is working to strengthen its ability to respond to the next disaster. The nonprofit also faces the unique challenge of delivering food across water to people on the outer islands of Molokaʻi and Lānaʻi, which are in Maui County.
Paulson said she hopes to address that vulnerability by building food storage on these outer islands to ensure they have access to supplies in the event of a disaster.
Amid Trump Cuts, Food Bank Plots Federal Funding Boost
As disaster funding cools, the Maui Food Bank plans to aggressively seek out federal grant money. Historically, the nonprofit has received a single $50,000 federal grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Emergency Food Assistance Program.
That dollar amount was expected to rise to roughly $1.2 million this year, but those plans were scuttled after the Trump administration canceled grant money from the program.
Maui Food Bank has hired 10 new, full-time employees for a total of 29 — with an average salary of $70,000. New positions funded by disaster relief include a grants manager and a major gifts director. Paulson said she created these key positions to diversify the food bank's revenue sources by aggressively pursuing federal dollars.
Federal money accounts for less than 1% of the nonprofit's annual revenues. Its top funding sources are individual contributions and corporate donors, followed by Maui County, which gives $400,000 annually, and state government grants.
'Even with the cuts that are being made, there's still a lot of opportunities to receive federal support and I don't want to miss those opportunities,' Paulson said.
The Changing Demographics Of Hunger
As wildfire survivors progress in their recovery, the risk of hunger isn't waning but shifting into new demographics. The need for food donations among this group is gently tapering. But it's picking up in a new demographic: working families.
'I think a lot of people have really kind of gone beyond the recovery mode from the fire and they're getting on their feet,' Paulson said. 'What we're seeing is the cost of living being prohibitive to putting fresh, good food on the table for families.'
'We are seeing an uptick in people who are working,' she added. 'And when they get to the end of the month, after paying rent and insurance and schooling and preschool and all of those expenses, we're seeing a new group of people that are really struggling in making really difficult decisions about 'What bill can I pay?' and 'Can we eat tonight?''
Paulson said the food bank has the resources to meet this need. It's considering shifting its hours of operation and distribution points to make it more accessible for these families to get food aid on evenings and weekends.
To overcome the stigma of neediness, the nonprofit is considering adopting a food voucher program so that people who may not be comfortable receiving donated food can feel like they're using the vouchers to purchase it. Instead of handing out brown boxes packed with goods, Paulson said the nonprofit is increasingly adopting a farmers market-style food distribution scheme that allows families to visit outdoor pop-up food booths and take what they need.
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This story was originally published by Honolulu Civil Beat and distributed through a partnership with The Associated Press.