33 Years of Working Together to Feed Hawaiʻi Island - NALC Food Drive 2026

Letter carriers, volunteers, and The Food Basket’s staff come together to collect food donations along mail routes; receive and sort donations; and help relieve hunger on Hawaiʻi Island.

HILO, Hawaiʻi - The Food Basket and the National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC) came together on Saturday, May 9, 2026 for The Food Basket’s largest annual food drive. This effort was part of the NALC’s national Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive that happens in May of each year across the United States, with this being the 33rd year that the Food Basket and NALC have collaborated on Hawaiʻi Island.

On average, this drive raises over 30,000 pounds of canned goods, rice, instant noodles, and other non-perishable food items on Hawaiʻi Island alone. Duryn Izumo, the Food Basket’s Managing Director explains, “We partner with the post office who gathers all the food into trucks from the different routes that they take. They bring the food over here to our warehouse then unload. We have a bunch of different volunteers from various different groups who will unload everything into carts and then we take it back here and sort everything into categories and then once that is done we'll weigh everything and put it into our system to get dispersed.”

With 40% of Hawaiʻi Island residents experiencing food insecurity, food drives like this one are critical to meeting community needs. “Today's food drive is important in my opinion because of the economy. It's not getting any easier and there's a lot of families in need, especially here in Hawaiʻi. This is one way we can give back to…help them out,” says Mary Pedro, Union President of Hilo Post Office.

The Food Basket staff and volunteers echoed this sentiment, encouraging local residents to contribute whatever they can, and reach out for assistance if they need it. Ann Ebesuno, Food Basket Board Chair and volunteer says, “You never know when it's going to happen to you. You may think today I'm well off, but tomorrow you may be in that line for food. So you never know, and we're here for you.” Fua Wilson, a warehouse worker at The Food Basket adds, “No be shame, we are here to help you. That's what we are here for. We are here to help.”

Video by Scottie Kanda