Homeowners
If you are a Hawai'i County homeowner with fruit trees on your property, you can help relieve hunger by becoming a Fruit Donor! KÅkua Harvest will provide pickers/gleaners to harvest and donate all or any portion of your produce to those in need.
Why Should You Donate?
1. You’ll be helping people in need, and you’ll be part of the larger effort to relieve hunger on Hawai’i Island.
2. You’ll receive a tax-deductible receipt for your donation of produce.
3. You’ll be free of the mess created by fruit lying on the ground, which can be an attractant for pests.
How Do You Donate?
There are two ways to donate. Read more about these two options below, and then enter your information to register your trees with KÅkua Harvest.
1. Do It Yourself (DIY) Harvests
KÅkua Harvest will provide picking equipment (picking poles, containers, and other tools as necessary) and when you’re finished, we will pick up your harvested produce and distribute it through The Food Basket.
2. KÅkua Harvest Gleans
Our volunteers will harvest your produce for you! Depending on how much you need harvested, crews of 1 to 20 will come to your property and carefully harvest your produce. Submit your request to donate produce from your trees or garden, and we’ll contact you to make the necessary arrangements.
Everything we harvest is split between the property owner, volunteers, and The Food Basket.
Join Us!
If you wish to donate a crop from your property, click on the "Donate Your Crop" button and fill out the form, or if you have any questions get in touch with us directly from the Contact Page. Be sure to check out the FAQ, as your question may already be answered.
Decided donating isn’t for you but still want to contribute? Sign up to be a volunteer!
Interested in the Legalities?
First, we properly train and supervise all volunteers who glean with us. Every volunteer has checked off a liability waiver that protects the crop donor. A copy of this can be seen here.
Also, in 1996, Federal Bill Emerson Good Samaritan Food Donation Act to encourage the donation of food and grocery products to non-profit organizations for distribution to individuals in need. This law:
- Protects you from liability when you donate to a non-profit organization;
- Protects you from civil and criminal liability should the product donated in good faith later cause harm to the recipient;
- Standardizes donor liability exposure. You or your legal counsel do not need to investigate liability laws in 50 states; and
- Sets a floor of "gross negligence" or intentional misconduct for persons who donate grocery products. According to the new law, gross negligence is defined as "voluntary and conscious conduct by a person with knowledge (at the time of conduct) that the conduct is likely to be harmful to the health or well-being of another person."
For more information visit Feeding America.
Additionally, in 2015, Congress passed the PATH Act as Division Q of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2016, which modified Section 170 of the Internal Revenue Code to allow all companies to earn an enhanced tax deduction for donating selected surplus property, including food.
At the state level, State of Hawai’i has the State – Hawaii Good Samaritan Donation of Food Act. An excerpt:
(a) Any donor of food products, who in good faith donates the food for the use or distribution by a charitable, religious, or nonprofit organization to needy persons shall not be liable for any civil damages or criminal penalties for any injuries or illnesses including, but not limited to injuries or illnesses resulting from the nature, age, condition, packaging, or handling of the donated food products, except for such damages as may result from the donor’s gross negligence or wanton acts or omissions.
