By PETER SUR
Tribune-Herald staff writer
The Hawaii County Council is set to declare an emergency food shortage and make a $200,000 appropriation to The Food Basket.
Councilman Pete Hoffmann is introducing the bill, which declares a public health emergency because of recent findings that 16 percent of Big Island residents, and 26.6 percent of all children, “are food insecure and do not know from where and when their next meal is coming.”
He is seeking a rarely used method that bypasses the usual legislative process to get the bill passed. Under the county charter, emergency ordinances such as the one Hoffmann is introducing are waived through committee review and must be approved by at least six affirmative votes at a single meeting. The bill cannot be amended, and after approval by the mayor, it is repealed 61 days following the adoption of the ordinance.
His Bill 199 will be discussed at the next County Council meeting on Friday in Hilo.
It’s the latest effort by Hoffmann, a longtime supporter of The Food Basket, to get help for the nonprofit.
Last December, the council unanimously approved a resolution from Hoffmann asking the Kenoi administration to allocate at least $500,000 from the current operating budget for the Food Basket.
“The administration didn’t do anything with it,” Hoffmann said.
So in February he tried again, introducing Bill 170, to transfer $200,000 from the county’s disaster and emergency fund to the Food Basket. That effort met with resistance from county attorneys, so Hoffmann went back, worked with the Office of the Corporation Counsel, and introduced the emergency appropriation bill.
“The council recognizes the need to address this public health emergency by assisting with immediate efforts to alleviate hunger,” the bill says. “An emergency appropriation is necessary to take every step necessary to ensure that the health of our residents is not compromised by the lack of food.”
“The Food Bank is the only islandwide procurement and distribution organization that handles food for people throughout the county of Hawaii,” Hoffmann said.
Nani Lee, executive director of The Food Bank, said that the councilman approached her to offer help. She said Hoffmann, who organizes a charity Hokulia golf tournament, toured some of the nonprofit’s warehouses and “saw we were low on food.”
“Food distribution is neither simple nor cheap,” Lee said. “You have to store the food and you have to do a lot of different things with it. … It (the appropriation) would significantly help The Food Basket.
“This is a rough time of the year for us,” Lee said.
Hoffmann’s Bill 170 isn’t dead, however. It has been modified and will be discussed by the council for final approval at the same meeting. Councilwoman Brenda Ford is introducing a revised version and is raising the appropriation amount to $500,000.
“One or the other one (the $200,000 appropriation or the $500,000 one) will pass. Not both. That’s assuming it will pass,” she said. “In my opinion, we have an extremely severe food shortage in this county for people that need to access food.”
Email Peter Sur at psur@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
