How do I run through a WordPress loop called from a filter function?

When using a custom query, in order to access the $post information, you need to reference post as a class variable the custom WP_Query.

Since you constructed the query as:
$hw_selectbox_query = new WP_Query($hw_selectbox_args);

Then you would access the post variable of $hw_selectbox_query, like so:

var_dump($hw_selectbox_query->post);

This will give you the information you need / want to build your $field array.