I was delighted to see Civil Beat’s editorial, “Feed Hawaii’s Hungry.” Food insecurity and the malnutrition that comes with it deserves far more attention than it has been getting.

However, the issue should be approached with care.

The article’s opening paragraph says “1 in 6 children in Hawaii struggle with hunger,” and cites a 2016 study by a mainland food bank organization as its source. The study and its methodology were not clearly identified.

If there is real interest in child malnutrition, the state government should be monitoring and reporting on the problem in a systematic way.

Civil Beat’s report suggests that people go hungry for financial reasons, meaning poverty.

However, while practically all people who are hungry are poor, not all poor people are hungry. There are many communities that eat quite well despite their having little money.

Cory Lum/Civil Beat

The article supports a program to encourage more purchases of locally produced fruits and vegetables through the SNAP program. That is certainly a good thing, but it is not likely that this would make much difference in the prevalence of hunger among Hawaii’s children.

Would any agency assess the impact?

It would be more useful to require the Department of Health to continuously monitor food security in the state, using data and methods already developed by the federal government, and also implement well-designed programs to address the problem.

DOH did monitor food security for a short time in the past, as I explain in my article “Food Security in Hawaii.”