EAT THINK DRINK

HONOLULU, HI – The Hawai‘i Agricultural Foundation (HAF) will host its 21st EAT THINK DRINK, Nutrition Security and Our Local Food Producers, on Wednesday, April 19, 2023 from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. at the Prince Waikiki Hotel’s Pi‘inaio Ballroom. Presented by Central Pacific Bank, the event features keynote speaker Michel Nischan, a four-time James Beard Award winning chef with over 40 years of leadership advocating for a more healthful, sustainable food system. 

When addressing food security, is providing reliable access to affordable food enough?  Often, nutrition is overlooked or compromised for quantity, rather than quality, of food, and among the  reasons our most impoverished communities are often plagued with the highest rates of diet-related disease like diabetes, heart disease, hypertension, and obesity. As important as providing enough food is providing the right food – local, fresh and unprocessed. 

Nutrition Security and Our Local Food Producers will bring together thought leaders and advocates to discuss how addressing nutrition security can help our most vulnerable populations, as well as provide support to our local farmers, ranchers, and fishermen. The discussion will examine our food systems and the changes that need to be made so that nutritious, healthful, fresh foods are accessible while also reducing our need for food imports. With diet-related diseases like diabetes and obesity driving the highest hospitalization and death rates, it is imperative that we begin to make systematic changes to reverse this trend. 

According to a University of Hawaiʻi study, 48% of families with children in Hawaiʻi experience food insecurity. The Hawaiʻi Foodbank has also reported that Hawaiʻi has the second highest rate of child food insecurity in the nation with one in four children experiencing hunger. Hawaiʻi kupuna also are at risk with nearly 10 percent of seniors, 60 and older, experiencing food insecurity. (Senior Hunger Report by the Hawaiʻi Appleseed Center for Law & Economic Justice in 2020).