KOLOA — Tina Brun juggled between overseeing the activity taking place in the St. Raphael’s Church hall and watching the simmering chicken hekka brewing on the church kitchen stove, Friday. “We’re going to feed you lunch, so we want you
KOLOA — Tina Brun juggled between overseeing the activity taking place in the St. Raphael’s Church hall and watching the simmering chicken hekka brewing on the church kitchen stove, Friday.
“We’re going to feed you lunch, so we want you to stay after you’re done,” Brun told the group of volunteers who turned out to help pack food bags for the homeless and needy in time for Thanksgiving.
“We appreciate all that you do, and I’m sure the hungry people who will receive these bags are just as appreciative.”
The St. Raphael’s Church parishioners have been packing bags for several years, the completed packaged being delivered to home-bound and homeless people in the Koloa area.
But they also expand their deliveries to beyond the boundaries of Koloa, one year going as far as Lucy Wright Park in Waimea and ‘Anini Beach Park in a single day.
According to the 2010 The Hunger Study, the Kaua‘i Independent Food Bank fed more than 11,000 unduplicated persons in 2009.
“Product is often distributed as fast as donations come in,” states the website, citing that its demand for food has increased by 40 percent and food distribution has increased by 37 percent.
When the Kukui‘ula Development employees showed up at St. Raphael’s again this holiday season, their sleeves rolled up and spirits high, anxious to get started, they also brought along a carload of canned goods and some toiletries to accompany them.
“We had a small drive in the company and the bosses matched the employees contributions,” said Gini Kapali, community relations director for Kukui‘ula.
Brun, in charge of the church food pantry and no stranger to this annual event for the holidays, was one of the representatives of agencies to pick up turkeys and other canned supplies early from the Kaua‘i Independent Food Bank Nawiliwili warehouse, Thursday morning when the distribution started.
“I didn’t want to get caught in the traffic,” Brun said. “It was already raining, and that was bad enough.”
Those supplies were augmented by the Kukui‘ula contribution and others brought in by church parishioners.
Brenda Sameshima, one of the Kukui‘ula employees, is also a parishioner at St. Raphael’s, and lost little time melding the employees with the volunteering parishioners.
As the stacks of canned goods and toiletries started to spread out, one could not help but reflect back on the days following Hurricane ‘Iniki in 1992 when residents were elated when someone presented them a can of Spam, or a package of saimin.
“It was like gold,” one of the employees said.
That spirit of aloha was one of the highlights in the national and international media coverage of hurricane recovery, and that same spirit permeated the air at St. Raphael’s Friday, the weekend before Thanksgiving.
The Kaua‘i Independent Food Bank, of which St. Raphael’s is a client agency, is currently accepting food and monetary contributions for its holiday food and fund drive on now through Dec. 15.
The goal is to gather and distribute 40,000 pounds of food and raise $40,000.
Contributions can be dropped off at any Kaua‘i Fire Department fire station on Kaua‘i, or at the KIFB facility in Nawiliwili.
Visit www.kauaifoodbank.org for more information, or to contribute online.
• Dennis Fujimoto, staff writer and photographer, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 253) or dfujimoto@kauaipubco.com.
