According to the Maui Food Bank, someone you know is struggling with hunger.

This vital charity provides food for more than 11,000 needy people in our island community. And with the long-lived recession and current rise in unemployment, more Maui County families and individuals are hurting.

Food drives conducted all over Maui during the holiday season were very successful… but that food is gone now.

It’s time to help Maui Food Bank restock its shelves with Spring Food Drives until May 31.

Members of Maui’s nine Rotary Clubs will hold an island-wide food drive for the Food Bank on Saturday and Sunday, April 30 and May 1, during “Rotarians at Work Weekend.”

Rotarians will collect nonperishable food and cash donations at the entrance doors of Safeway in Lahaina, Kahului and Kihei; Foodland in Lahaina, Pukalani and Kahului; Lahaina Farms; and Longs Drugs in Pukalani, joining more than 70,000 Rotarians on three continents working at the same time in service to their home communities.

Maui Food Bank Executive Director Marlene Rice said these food drives are vital to the mission of the organization: to provide hunger relief for anyone who might be in need.

Food and funds collected will help families, seniors on a fixed income and single parents who rely on the Maui Food Bank just to make it month to month.

The most-needed items are canned meats, tuna, soups, fruits and vegetables, meals with protein, rice, peanut butter, pasta and financial contributions.

Give to the members of Maui’s Rotary Clubs next weekend or start a food drive at your business, school, church or community group.

“It will take our entire island ‘ohana working together to solve the hunger problem we are facing in Maui County,” the Maui Food Bank noted. Your contributions will help people in Lahaina and around Maui County.