A day after Thursday's dismal report of impending service cuts in a core nutrition program for elders, there was some heartwarming news: Hawai'i residents are already rallying to help bridge the funding gap.

Offers of support poured into the office of Lanakila Meals on Wheels, where the waiting list of low-income senior citizens is about to double. In about three weeks, agency officials said, 233 seniors will be cut off from service because the budget is so tight.

On this Father's Day, it's a relief to observe that Hawai'i's cultural values for elder care still resonate in the community. But it's also obvious that the state is struggling to keep up with a growing social need.

The 2000 Census, providing the most current figures, shows nearly one-fifth of the Island population at age 60 or older; by 2020, one in four residents here will be senior citizens. Life expectancy is long, and the needs of this increasingly frail population are great.

Compounding the impact of the raw numbers, nursing homes and other institutional programs providing elder care are in short supply and over capacity. More and more adults are caring for their aging parents at home, and there's every indication that trend will accelerate.

Most seniors do better, anyway, when they can remain in more familiar surroundings. So the state needs to build a network of services that will support both the seniors and their caregivers.

SB 1916, which awaits the governor's signature, is our lawmakers' effort to make progress toward that goal.

Among its many components, the so-called Family Caregivers Omnibus Package includes $1 million in supplemental funds for the state's Kupuna Care programs over the next two years. Besides the Meals on Wheels contracts, these funds pay people who provide daycare, transportation, case management, personal care and help in various other ways.

The governor should sign the package and release the funds quickly. Although private donors should be applauded for bridging the funding gap for Meals on Wheels or any other service, the state can't rely on such kindnesses forever. Elder care is not an obligation that should be fulfilled through crisis management.

It's also good public policy to make this investment in the wellness of seniors. Without the ongoing nutrition and monitoring that these social services provide, seniors become sicker and require much costlier medical interventions. Those bills, bigger bills, will come due, anyway.

But the most powerful reason for providing a strong safety net is that it's the right thing, the humane thing to do. The way we treat our kupuna defines Hawai'i as a community. The traditional values, in this case, are the ones we want to keep.