Over 100 local non-profits received urgently needed financial reinforcement and hope from proceeds raised through the 2020 Sony Open in Hawaii
Hawaii Charities Receive Vital Support!
This week over 100 local non-profits who serve communities most severely impacted by the global pandemic and economic shutdown, received urgently needed financial reinforcement and hope. Friends of Hawaii Charities distributed $1.2 million in charitable grants from proceeds raised through the 2020 Sony Open in Hawaii with support from long-time charity partner, The Harry & Jeanette Weinberg Foundation, Inc., which matches funds raised at tournament dollar-for-dollar; and from title sponsor Sony Corporation, host site Waialae Country Club, and state sponsor Hawaii Tourism Authority.
Friends of Hawaii Charities strategically directed funds towards local non-profits which provide food, shelter, safety, and healthcare for the needy, elderly, and disabled who have been deeply affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Aloha Harvest, the largest food rescue organization in Hawaii, was one of 110 local non-profits that received a grant from Friends of Hawaii Charities. Aloha Harvest rescues approximately 1.8 million pounds of quality excess food annually, diverting it from the waste stream by redistributing it free of charge, throughout the community to nourish the poor, hungry and homeless.
“With this donation from Friends of Hawaii Charities, we are ready to respond and feed the need of the community. Within the first 8 weeks of our COVID-19 response (March and April), our team and our partners rescued over 582,000 pounds of excess quality food from going to waste, nearly double our normal production in the same period last year,” said Phil Acosta, executive director of Aloha Harvest.
In collaboration with over 300 donors and social service agencies, Aloha Harvest was able to turn potential waste of food resources into approximately 484,000 meals. Acosta says Aloha Harvest hopes to scale efforts even further as the economic impact of this pandemic will be felt by many of Hawaii’s families for quite some time.
