"Whatever you see here without restocking just 2-3 days, yeah goes very fast," described Lissi Chadwick, DIrector of the United Methodist Church Foodbank.
Food pantries are seeing more and more people coming to them for help. In a given month the United Methodist Church used to serve 400-500 people, now that number has almost doubled.
"Then at end of the month it's standing rom only out the door into hallways," says Chadwick.
And it's happening on every island. A study just released by "Hunger in America", now estimates the number of people in need of food assistance in Hawaii has increased by 51,000 in the last 4 years. Totalling 183,500.
"First started noticing it before Aloha Airlines went out of business and then... boom boom boom and those layoffs have not stopped," says Polly Kauahi, Hawaii Foodbank Director of Development.
"This is the most need we have seen over years, and we have been in business since 1980," says Chadwick.
When data was last collected the national unemployment rate averaged 5.1% - it now stands around 9.7%.
"Member agencies telling us it's twice as much as used to be, three times as much as used to be," says Kauahi.
That includes emergency food assistance for 11,000 seniors and 55,000 children.
To put that in perspective, the Aloha Stadium seats 50,000 people. If every seat was filled by a child, they all would be in need of assistance from the Hawaii Foodbank.
"We're having to distribute more food then ever needed to before," says Kauahi.
Currently the Foodbank has a 16-day supply of food, with calls for more goods coming in by the hundreds.
"Constantly restocking shelves and constantly asking for help," says Kauahi.
Oahu has the highest number of people in need, followed by the Big Island, then Maui and Kauai.
