It's likely that we all know someone who's needy, who struggles to secure life's bare necessities.

Most of the Hawaii Foodbank's clientele are not on food stamps. About one-third live in households where the breadwinners are employed, with incomes above the official federal poverty line. They are the "working poor."

Today is the annual drive the organization hosts to raise money and gather nonperishable food donations. Its army of volunteers is stationed at intersections and other locations statewide, their daylong presence serving as a reminder that hunger in Hawai'i is a condition that comes near or within our own homes.

Many of those in need face difficult choices. Can we buy food, or pay the rent with what money remains this month? Can we stretch out the grocery budget enough to cover the utilities?

The Foodbank stocks its shelves with gifts from the food industry and others, then distributes them among 250 charities that feed the hungry.

Costs of living are rising for all of us, but for those who are living on the razor's edge, it takes very little to push them over the edge — or to fulfill some of their most urgent needs. Today, let's all find a way to share what we have with those who have less.