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Food Box

Feed the Hunger

by Martha Cheng Martha Cheng | Sep 7, 2011

Sometimes all that’s needed to create a movement is someone to connect the pieces together…and a little bit of money. Denise Albano and Patti Chang are attempting to do just that with their nonprofit Feed the Hunger Foundation, a microfinance organization, in which they provide small loans to low income entrepreneurs interested in making local, accessible healthy food. The loans, averaging between $5 and $15,000, are granted to people involved in every step of the food system: agriculture, aquaponics, farmers’ markets and restaurants. But more than money, they also provide a network to help entrepreneurs succeed, whether it’s providing a path into a farmers’ market or even getting their product into Alan Wong’s kitchen.

Feed the Hunger’s goal is food security, both in the larger sense for our Islands, as well as a on a more individual level, so that each entrepreneur the nonprofit lends to can create a sustainable business.

On Thursday, Sept. 8, there will be a benefit for Feed the Hunger. There will, of course, be food, prepared by Chef Mavro and Ed Kenney, and the night will also include a dialogue between Frances Moore Lappe (author of Diet for a Small Planet) and Kenney.

For tickets ($200 each), RSVP to Denise Albano at [email: denisealbano]

Hilton Hawaiian Village, Coral Ballroom, Thu., 9/8, 5:30-9:30pm

Sometimes all that’s needed to create a movement is someone to connect the pieces together…and a little bit of money. Denise Albano and Patti Chang are attempting to do just that with their nonprofit Feed the Hunger Foundation, a microfinance organization, in which they provide small loans to low income entrepreneurs interested in making local, accessible healthy food. The loans, averaging between $5 and $15,000, are granted to people involved in every step of the food system: agriculture, aquaponics, farmers’ markets and restaurants. But more than money, they also provide a network to help entrepreneurs succeed, whether it’s providing a path into a farmers’ market or even getting their product into Alan Wong’s kitchen.

Feed the Hunger’s goal is food security, both in the larger sense for our Islands, as well as a on a more individual level, so that each entrepreneur the nonprofit lends to can create a sustainable business.

On Thursday, Sept. 8, there will be a benefit for Feed the Hunger. There will, of course, be food, prepared by Chef Mavro and Ed Kenney, and the night will also include a dialogue between Frances Moore Lappe (author of Diet for a Small Planet) and Kenney.

For tickets ($200 each), RSVP to Denise Albano at [email: denisealbano]

Hilton Hawaiian Village, Coral Ballroom, Thu., 9/8, 5:30-9:30pm

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