Hawaiian Electric donates $75,500 to seven Hawaiʻi nonprofits

Hawaiian Electric has donated a total of $75,500 to seven Hawaiʻi-based nonprofit organizations that provide social services to help improve the quality of life for vulnerable community members on the five islands served by the company.

The following organizations received donations:

Feeding Hawaiʻi Together intends to keep pace with the projected increase of food-insecure households on Oʻahu by providing consistent and reliable access to nutritional food through an e-commerce food distribution program that gives clients a dignified and compassionate way to shop for free groceries and pick up items curbside.

Helping Hands Hawaiʻi has allocated funds to its Community Clearinghouse, a year-round donation warehouse in Kalihi that gives struggling individuals and families access to free household goods, furnishings, clothing and basic essentials, which allows them to save their limited resources for future self-sufficiency.

Imua Family Services has directed the donation to its Camp Imua Program, a summer camp that creates safe recreational experiences for children with cognitive and/or physical challenge who live on Maui, Lānaʻi and Molokaʻi.

Kuʻikahi Mediation Center, the sole nonprofit mediation center serving East Hawaiʻi, will use the donation to help its clients – more than half who live below the poverty line and may have difficulty navigating the legal system – resolve interpersonal conflicts and community issues through low-cost or free mediation services as an alternative to costly litigation.

The Legal Clinic will direct funds to its Advocacy & Community Education on Immigrant Rights program to reach vulnerable foreign-born Hawaiʻi residents through enhanced social media presence, multi-lingual information, public presentations and targeted outreach efforts. These underserved populations often need an advocate on fair immigration policies, awareness of immigrant justice issues and free or low-cost immigration legal services.

Mālaʻai will use the funds to support its Culinary Garden at Waimea Middle School, which provides hands-on, food-based education in an outdoor living laboratory and cultivates connections between people, land, food and culture. Crops are harvested and shared with Waimea community members, teachers, administrators and students, many who live at or near the poverty level, which enhances food security for those in need.

Project Vision Hawaiʻi will use the funds to expand its Hiehie Health & Hygiene Outreach, providing low-income and homeless individuals with vision and health care screenings, dental supplies, hygiene products and access to mobile hygiene trailers with hot showers and bathroom facilities. The program goes directly to encampments, food banks, beach parks and places where community members in need are located and also helps them apply for SNAP benefits, health insurance, housing assistance and other services to improve their health and quality of life.