Fellows mentioned in this story:
Amy Miller
Yunji de Nies

From Hawai‘i News Now:

Amy Miller is the President and CEO of the Hawai‘i Foodbank, where she leads efforts to ensure that no one in the islands goes without food. From marine science to nonprofit leadership, Miller’s path has always been guided by a conviction that kindness is at the core of making change.

“Being kind I think is so important, right? It’s all about connections and connecting with people. And you know, if you have an opportunity to make somebody’s life a little bit better, you know to me that’s a big part of being human,” Miller says.

The need she confronts is staggering. Hawai‘i Foodbank now serves more than 170,000 individuals each month — double the number from before the COVID-19 pandemic. Behind those statistics are families making impossible choices.

“30% of Hawai‘i families are food insecure. So that means there’s not enough food in that family for everybody to live a healthy, active lifestyle. And that could range from needing to make compromises on the kinds of foods that you purchase, all the way to skipping meals, going without food for whole days, or losing weight, because there just wasn’t enough money for food. We have kids that are going to bed hungry at night on this island. And I just think that’s not okay,” Miller explains.

Watch at hawaiinewsnow.com.