An apple arrived at Macy’s Kukui Grove Thursday. “There is only one apple,” said store manager Debbie Chuckas. “And this year we got it.” The apple represented the top finish the store achieved in the chain-wide Bag Hunger program for
An apple arrived at Macy’s Kukui Grove Thursday.
“There is only one apple,” said store manager Debbie Chuckas. “And this year we got it.”
The apple represented the top finish the store achieved in the chain-wide Bag Hunger program for helping restock the Kaua‘i Food Bank following the 40 days of rain this spring.
Macy’s West chief financial officer Mike Wirkkala delivered the apple.
Combined with volunteer hours the store’s employees put in during their breaks and lunch hours, the Kukui Grove location soared to the top of the volunteer effort to help feed hungry people.
“They raised 52,242 pounds of food from their store,” Wirkkala said. “If you look at the population of Kaua‘i, that amounts to every person on this island coming up with a pound of food.”
The total amount breaks down to an average of each employee contributing 411 pounds of food.
“And don’t forget the 106 volunteer hours,” Chuckas said, referring to the period when the store’s break room was filled with brown bags, envelopes and staplers as Macy’s employees spent their breaks and lunch hours helping prepare the brown bags for the food bank drive.
“They won by quite a bit, too,” Wirkkala said. “The second place in the 160-store Macy’s West region went to Hilo, with the remaining top 10 stores being on the Mainland, although the Pearl Ridge store was pretty active, too.”
Macy’s employees received the apple and, fittingly, a free lunch for their efforts. Additionally, Wirkkala, Chuckas and Rowena Quisano, the Bag Hunger chair for Macy’s Kukui Grove, presented a check for $3,125 to Kelvin Moniz of the Kaua‘i Food Bank.
“Last year, we finished No. 2, so we decided we would just try harder,” Chuckas said. “Now this year, maybe we’ll go to the luncheon.”
At the last Mahalo Luncheon hosted by the Kaua‘i Food Bank, Moniz said Macy’s finished in the No. 3 spot for Business Contributors. The top contributor was the Pacific Missile Range Facility.
Based on this past performance, Moniz said, “You folks are well on your way. PMRF has a lot to catch up.”
Chuckas credited the entire store and staff for helping them achieve the honor.
“It started out as a challenge among managers, then it spread to the departments and in the end, everyone was doing something,” she said.
Quisano is already preparing to defend their No. 1 status for next year.
“The ‘CFO’ in Mike’s title stands for ‘Chief Food Officer,” Quisano said. “We learned from him.”
Wirkkala said he is on the Board for the San Francisco Food Bank and makes frequent visits to the facility.
“We’re going to try and repeat what we did this year,” Quisano said. “We have the apple to show for it.”
• Dennis Fujimoto, photographer and staff writer, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 253) or dfujimoto@kauaipubco.com.
