Among the primary focus areas at the Hawaiʻi Appleseed Center for Law & Economic Justice: hunger and food insecurity. While Hawaiʻi has made strides in addressing this issue in the growing senior population, current estimates place food insecurity in the age 60-and-older bracket at between 5 percent and nearly 10 percent. Using the more conservative estimate, more than 16,700 seniors here are at risk of going hungry.

In a just-released report, “Feeding Our Kupuna,” the nonprofit’s assessment of the problem is illustrated with three pillars: access to resources, health and nutrition, and community resilience.

Together, they serve as a “framework that acknowledges the complexity of what it takes to truly address hunger,” said Daniela Spoto, director of anti-hunger initiatives at Hawaiʻi Appleseed, which advocates on behalf of low-income and marginalized people, and conducts data-driven research to inform public policy and systems change.

“Traditionally, anti-hunger solutions have focused only on the access-to-resources pillar—making sure that all people have food. Little attention has been paid to how healthy that food is, or whether we see our food system as an opportunity to generate community wealth and address hunger at its root,” she said.