“We just heard earlier today we as a council should take a lead,” Onishi said. “I think this should be amended to let the council be the lead and donate the money to the food bank first and then let the administration follow up.
The Hawaii County Food Basket is scraping bottom and two Hawaii County councilmen are trying to help.
“Things are really tough out there,” Nani Lee, executive director of the countywide nonprofit food bank, told Stephens Media on Friday. “We’re actually feeding more people with less food.”
To be specific, Lee said, the Food Basket fed 41.6 percent more people in 2011 compared to the year before with 5 percent less food and other public and private donations.
After being rebuffed by county administration last month in his request for $500,000 in emergency funding for the Food Basket, Kohala Councilman Pete Hoffmann is trying another approach. His nonbinding resolution asking the administration, which passed unanimously last month, didn’t result in more food for the needy.
So at the council meeting Wednesday in Hilo, Hoffmann will introduce Bill 170 for a binding ordinance to take $200,000 from the county’s disaster and emergency fund to help the Food Basket. Hoffmann said there’s more than $5 million in the fund.
“If this isn’t an emergency, I don’t know what is,” Hoffmann said. “There is money in the budget that I feel could be used. It’s important we feed people first.”
The council initiatives coincide with the Food Basket’s 10th annual Feed-A-Thon food drive. Local radio personality Tommy “Kahikina” Ching will promote the event from Feb. 1 through 10, when food will be collected at island KTAs.
The goal is enough donations of food and money to collect 100,000 pounds of food — a month’s supply — in just 10 days.
Managing Director Bill Takaba has said the county can’t just take money from a tight budget, and it can’t award such a large amount to one entity without seeking competitive proposals.
“We all feel for people who are disadvantaged,” Takaba said. “But the issue is economics.”
Hoffmann said he isn’t wedded to taking the money from the emergency fund if there’s a better avenue.
“The administration is best qualified to identify the source of the funds, but the administration hasn’t indicated any movement,” Hoffmann said. “If the administration feels there is a better source of funds, I’ll be happy to stand down and have them submit their own ordinance.”
Hilo Councilman Dennis Onishi, who ultimately voted for the resolution last month, suggested the council find the money out of its own budget.
He put those words into action on the Wednesday council agenda with a binding measure, Resolution 220, appropriating $75,000 from the County Council budget for the Food Basket. The money became available because of a $75,000 grant from Na Leo O Hawaii, the local public access TV station, to help defray the council’s cost of videoconferencing and recording its meetings.
“We just heard earlier today we as a council should take a lead,” Onishi said. “I think this should be amended to let the council be the lead and donate the money to the food bank first and then let the administration follow up.