Aloha Harvest: Rescuing quality food to nourish and strengthen our community

Aloha Harvest’s dual mission is what makes them unique, simultaneously addressing climate change and food insecurity.

Founded in 1999, Aloha Harvest started up with one administrator, one part-time driver, and a rented van. 23 years later, they have evolved as the largest nonprofit in Hawaii dedicated to food rescue and sustainability.

Aloha Harvest rescues excess food from all sources, including grocery stores, restaurants, local farms, and distributors, then delivers it on the same day to neighboring community partners, such as other social service agencies and homeless shelters feeding the community. They provide these critical services seven days a week for free.

Working with over 1,000 community partners on Oʻahu over the past two decades, Aloha Harvest reached a significant milestone in June 2022, diverting over 30 million pounds of food that would have otherwise been discarded. By preventing all that food from entering the waste stream through Oʻahu’s incinerator and landfills, they are helping mitigate the effects of food waste on climate change and saving approximately $84,000,000 or 25,000,000 meals.

Through their pandemic response, Aloha Harvest experienced tremendous growth but anticipates the need for food assistance to continue increasing with current supply chain disruptions and increasing prices of housing, fuel, and food severely affecting the financial stability of many families.

Despite these challenges, Aloha Harvest continues to scale its food rescue operations and is expanding into programs like Community Harvest, a volunteer-led gleaning program; Meals with Aloha, creating prepared meals with rescued and locally sourced food ingredients; and an upcoming community compost pilot with the City and County of Honolulu.

Learn more about their work and how to get involved by visiting www.alohaharvest.org or following them on social media @alohaharvest.