KIFB spring food drive begins

LIHU‘E — The Kaua‘i Independent Food Bank’s will try to raise $100,000 and collect 100,000 pounds of food during its annual Spring Food Drive to help the growing number of hungry families on the island.

“This is island-wide,” said Kelvin Moniz, the KIFB director of food resources. “All of the food and funds raised on Kaua‘i by the KIFB stays on Kaua‘i to help Kaua‘i’s people.”

To accomplish this, the KIFB is encouraging the public to donate food and money.

Help can come in the form of contributions in a brown bag inserted inside today’s edition of The Garden Island. Help can also come in the form of organizing a food drive or volunteering for the KIFB Gleaning and Plant a Row programs.

Moniz said since 1995, more than $19.5 million, or 122.5 million pounds of food, has been distributed through the KIFB. That equates to more than 16.6 million meals.

Food distribution is accomplished through a network of churches, nonprofit organizations and charter schools that comprise the food bank’s 54 partner agencies.

Food arrives through a network of more than 50 grocery and retail stores, restaurants, hotels and distributors, as well as from individual donors.

But Moniz said the number of hungry keeps growing, taxing the facilities and food supply.

The demand for KIFB services has more than tripled from about 50,000 emergency food requests in 2008 to a record-setting 150,000 requests in 2011.

“The Kaua‘i Independent Food Bank has been helping and supporting the local community for the past 16 years,” state Sen. Ron Kouchi, D-Kaua‘i and Ni‘ihau, said after receiving an update on KIFB activities from KIFB board president Rowena Cobb last week.

“Although they are the smallest food bank in the state, they have a significant impact on the lives of those who struggle to afford food,” Kouchi said.

KIFB statistics show it currently feeds the largest percentage of the total population in any county at about 17 percent, according to Hunger Study 2010.

Its food distribution network stretches beyond  food commodities. The food bank offers Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) outreach and the Electronics Benefits Transfer Program, which allows food stamp recipients to enjoy local products at the county’s sunshine markets and at a farmers market sponsored by the Kaua‘i County Farm Bureau.

KIFB’s vocational rehabilitation program helps individuals become more employable and self-sufficient by providing job training and skills-building help.

The Hawai‘i Department of Human Services’ Division of Vocational Rehabilitation named the KIFB its Outstanding Employer of the Year in 2009.

Cob has said the goal of KIFB in 2012 is two-fold — providing more nutritious meals and helping to feed the keiki.

Nutritious food for keiki is available through its Keiki Kafe, a first for the state when the program opened in 2004 in partnership with the Boys and Girls Clubs, Waimea Clubhouse, and the Kaua‘i Children’s Discovery Museum. Children ages   7 through 17 who participated in the after-school program receive nutritious “super snacks” throughout the year.

The Back Pack Program offers nutritious food to enjoy over the weekend to youth on the Eastside, through the Boys and Girls Club, and to youth on the Westside through two Ni‘ihau charter schools.

“KIFB has proven its commitment to the local Kaua‘i community by its dedication these past 16 years,” Kouchi said. “I believe they are truly committed to ending food poverty on Kaua‘i and I am greatly appreciative of their efforts in this endeavor.”

The Kaua‘i Independent Food Bank is a no-profit, tax-exempt charitable organization formally established in December 1994.

Prior to its incorporation, KIFB was initially operated by volunteers in the wake of Hurricane Iniki in 1992.

∫ Dennis Fujimoto, photographer and staff writer, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 253) or dfujimoto@ thegardenisland.com.