Matson commits $5M to support community foodbanks through 2023

GUAM—Matson has committed $5 million in cash and in-kind shipping services to the foodbank networks supporting families in need in Hawaii, Alaska, and Guam. Already a longtime financial supporter in those communities, Matson will provide the foodbanks with ocean shipping of food supplies at no cost for the remainder of 2020 and all of 2021, 2022, and 2023.

The new commitment follows Matson’s support this year for Catholic Social Service Guam (CSS). Matson has provided shipping and extended the use of refrigeration containers for the island’s food bank.

“With the pandemic affecting incomes for so many, families in all of our communities are under extraordinary strain and foodbanks are struggling to keep up with the need. This is something we can do to help foodbanks put more of their funding toward sourcing food for distribution,” said Matt Cox, Chairman and CEO of Matson. “We are committed to helping meet community needs in the way we know best – by getting much needed basic sustenance supplies delivered as quickly and efficiently as possible.”

Lisa Bordallo, Marketing & Client Services manager for Catholic Social Service Guam, said, “The overall mission at Catholic Social Service is to encourage the spiritual, intellectual, economic, and social well-being of families and individuals in need through our services and programs. Our Food Pantry is one of our programs whose sole mission is to end hunger in Guam by providing outreach and emergency food assistance to the community.”

CSS started as a small food pantry offering a few days’ worth of canned goods to families affected by disaster. The CSS Food Pantry has grown to accommodate thousands of individuals per month. According to Bordallo, since the beginning of the pandemic, hundreds more families have requested food assistance, and a majority of those families were requesting assistance for the first time. CSS has also increased its outreaches to the homeless, elderly, lower-income families, and quarantined families in need of food assistance.

“With such increases in demand, we have increased our food drives and purchases to assist as many people as we can,” Bordallo said. “We thank our vendors and corporate partners such as Matson for helping us to meet the demand locally and to make this food more available. Si Yu’os Ma’åse’ Matson for your support of our mission and allowing us to be a part of this program!”

Cox added, “While we are all hopeful that vaccines and new treatments will begin to make a difference in 2021, it’s clear that the pandemic’s effects on many local families could be long-lasting. We are committing to support our foodbanks for the next three years in order to help them maximize their capacity to help families recover.”

Matson operates weekly service to Guam from Honolulu with connecting service to Saipan, Yap, Palau, Chuuk, Pohnpei, Kosrae, Majuro, and Kwajalein.
Detailed service schedules and other information about Matson is available online at Matson.com. (PR)