Feed the People Hawai‘i is Chef Hui and Aloha Harvest flagship meal collaboration, designed to address food insecurity, reduce food waste, and strengthen community connections. By combining rescued and locally sourced ingredients with hands-on culinary education, this program provides families and kūpuna with nutritious, culturally rooted meals while building resilience within Hawai‘i’s food system and reducing food waste.

Launched in 2020 in partnership with Aloha Harvest to transform rescued ingredients into meals that nourish both body and spirit. During the Maui wildfire crisis, Chef Hui expanded operations to provide meals to affected communities. These experiences shaped the program’s flexible model, which combines local resources, community knowledge, and culinary expertise to meet diverse needs across the islands.

Why Feed the People Hawaiʻi is Different

• Building Bridges, Not Just Filling Gaps: Many food assistance programs create a one-way flow: food goes out, need gets temporarily met. Feed the People Hawaiʻi creates something entirely different—a web of relationships that strengthens Hawaii's entire food ecosystem. When we partner with our dedicated nonprofit partners like the Hawai'i Foodbank and Aloha Harvest and work alongside community centers like Waianae Coast Comprehensive Health Center, KEY Project and Ke Kula Kaiapuni ‘o Ānuenue to serve meals and meal kits and reach unhoused community members, we're not just feeding those in need; we're creating support systems that combat isolation while turning rescued food into familiar, culturally-rooted dishes that nourish both body and spirit. These gatherings and meal distributions provide social healing for those in need while rekindling connections to culturally-rooted foods.

• Teaching Through Doing, Not Just Giving: Our ʻOhana Mahi'ai Meal Kits don't just provide ingredients—they provide the knowledge and confidence families need to cook healthy, local meals together. By pairing Foodbank pantry items with rescued produce and locally-sourced ingredients from Aloha Harvest and donors, we show families how to create nutritious meals from what's actually available in their community. The cooking demos, activities and recipe cards become tools they keep using long after the immediate need is met. Through this program, families expand their palates and discover new possibilities among foods available through SNAP benefits, the double bucks program,Foodbank pantry items and even their own backyards.

• Crisis-Ready by Design: This isn't an emergency program that gets activated during disasters—it's the infrastructure that makes emergency response possible. The relationships we build with community centers, the cooking skills we teach families, the networks created between chefs, volunteers and neighborhoods—these become the pathways that allow us to mobilize quickly when crisis hits. When the next hurricane or pandemic arrives, we won't be starting from scratch; we'll be activating an existing web of trust and capability.

• Local Economy as Medicine: Every meal kit that features local ingredients, every kupuna meal prepared by neighborhood chefs, every cooking demo that showcases Hawaii-grown produce sends dollars directly into our local food system. This approach proves that addressing food insecurity doesn't have to drain resources from local farmers and producers—it can actually strengthen them, creating a more resilient economy that benefits everyone.

Feed the People Hawaiʻi doesn't just feed people—it feeds the relationships that make communities resilient.