Gratitude in a Time of $100 Million in Federal Cuts

Thanksgiving is a season of gratitude, but in Hawaiʻi, it has also become a season of resilience. This year, that message feels especially sharp. Our state is facing more than $100 million in federal cuts – a blow that lands hardest on those who need help the most.

Thanksgiving has always been my favorite holiday. It is a season of gratitude, but in Hawaiʻi, it has also become a season of resilience. This year, that message feels especially sharp. Our state is facing more than $100 million in federal cuts – a blow that lands hardest on those who need help the most.

And yet, as we pulled together our annual feature on Hawaiʻi’s Most Charitable Companies (page 71), what stood out was how companies and nonprofits responded. Rather than shrinking back, they stepped up. As Managing Editor Ken Wills details in his feature, charitable giving across the Islands that we were able to track surged to record levels in 2024, with 106 companies and nonprofits contributing more than $349 million.

That’s almost $50 million more than the previous year. Employees also pitched in with more than 90,000 volunteer hours and $4.2 million in direct donations of their own.

These numbers matter. They mean Lahaina families displaced by the 2023 fires are still receiving housing assistance and mental health support. They mean our food banks can keep shelves stocked, our schools can access resources, and our cultural programs can survive even as federal support fades.

THE SPIRIT OF GIVING

Some of Hawaiʻi’s biggest companies are leading the way. Matson topped the corporate list with $7.6 million in giving during 2024; meanwhile, First Hawaiian Bank contributed $5.7 million and its employees donated nearly $874,000 more. The Hawaiʻi Community Foundation alone reported $151.7 million in donations – a staggering increase of more than $50 million from the year before.

But what stays with me even more than the size of the checks is the spirit behind them. As Michelle Kaʻuhane of the Hawaiʻi Community Foundation says: “When our communities are in need, companies and their employees see themselves as part of the solution.”

That sense of kuleana – of responsibility to one another – is what makes Hawaiʻi different.

Of course, no amount of local generosity can fully replace lost federal dollars. The challenges of housing, health and education remain daunting. But this season of Thanksgiving reminds me that generosity is one of our Islands’ greatest strengths.

As we gather with our families and friends, let us be grateful not only for the food on our tables but for the way Hawaiʻi continues to take care of its own. That is a tradition worth honoring and protecting as we face the year ahead.

A MESSY, BEAUTIFUL JOURNEY

“I’m starting with a confession: I’m 26 and had less than $50 in my bank account a couple months back. I know, not good.”

That’s how Ryann Noelani Coules opens her new column, “Trial and Error,” and it sets the tone perfectly: candid, witty and refreshingly real about the highs and lows of life in Hawaiʻi for people in their 20s and 30s.

Coules isn’t writing from an ivory tower. She’s a journalist trying to make it in Hawaiʻi on a salary with little wiggle room, navigating rent, student loans and impulse purchases like $7 oat milk lattes, all while striving for a sense of balance.

“Yet, like many people my age, I live paycheck-to-paycheck. I love my job and the benefits are great, but my salary is modest, and living in the state with the highest cost of living makes matters harder.”

That double whammy – sky-high living expenses and limited career opportunities – defines young adulthood in the Islands. It also makes Coules’ reflections deeply relatable for a generation figuring it all out one misstep at a time – and for us older folks trying to understand their struggles. She doesn’t just offer advice; she shares her stumbles and small victories, celebrating progress where she finds it.

The timing of her first “Trial and Error” column this month is appropriate as our all-day Money Matters event is Nov. 22. The gathering is aimed at all generations but may be especially important for those of Coules’ age group, for which adulthood comes with overdraft fees, overdue bills and the occasional impulse splurge on poké and bikinis, but also the satisfaction of slowly, stubbornly, making it work.