LIHU‘E — Littered among the gym bags, white plastic bags containing canned goods and non-perishable food appeared at the practice of the Kaua‘i High School girls varsity and junior varsity basketball program, Wednesday. “It’s Christmas Eve and the girls wanted
LIHU‘E — Littered among the gym bags, white plastic bags containing canned goods and non-perishable food appeared at the practice of the Kaua‘i High School girls varsity and junior varsity basketball program, Wednesday.
“It’s Christmas Eve and the girls wanted to bring something for the Kaua‘i Food Bank,” said JV coach Sandi Nadatani. “They were supposed to help when the Department of Water cooked meals for the Kaua‘i Economic Opportunity emergency homeless shelter program, but the DOW had enough help.”
Kelvin Moniz, Kaua‘i Food Bank Operations Manager as well as a Kaua‘i Interscholastic Federation official, said the quantity is not important.
“This food is not for the poor,” Moniz said. “The poor gets taken care of. This food is for people like you and me, who for whatever the reason, just don’t have enough to make it until the next payday.”
Moniz said the Kaua‘i Food Bank receives more than 8,000 requests for food each month.
After consulting with Kaua‘i High School athletic director Ross Shimabukuro, who stopped by to listen to the presentation, the basketball teams agreed to host a food collection at each of its home games during the KIF season.
“We just want to give people an opportunity to help others,” Nadatani said. “They don’t have to bring a canned good, but we’ll have collection boxes at our home games so people who might not otherwise have a place to contribute, can bring it to the basketball games.”
Moniz said the Kaua‘i High School contribution joins others like Syngenta Seeds who stopped by the Nawiliwili facility, Wednesday with almost 2,700 pounds of food. Additionally, he said Manu Kai, one of the affiliate organizations at the Pacific Missile Range Facility came through with more than $1,000 in gift cards and money earmarked especially for food.
“The Manu Kai associates received Big Save gift cards, and were asked if they were willing to contribute the cards to help others,” Moniz said. “Almost all of the employees agreed and the Manu Kai contribution came to more than $900 in Big Save gift cards with the remainder coming in cash.”
The KIF girls basketball season starts Tuesday when Kaua‘i hosts Kapa‘a at the Raiderdome. The JV game tips off starting at 5:30 p.m. followed by the varsity matchup.
