HAENA — Since record-setting floodwaters devastated the North Shore communities of Wainiha and Haena last month, the Haena Soup Kitchen has been serving residents warm, nourishing dinners, with a side of love.
When the storm hit, Jessica Lindman, who has been heading up the community eatery since April 18, was working in Hanalei as a caretaker for a vacation rental. When her rubber boots filled with water several times that day, she knew something was different about this storm, but didn’t think much else of it.
“I was doing flowers for check-in that day. I was just outfitting the house, making sure everything was the way it should be and doing the flower arrangements, and I was wearing boots because it was raining so much and I had to empty my boots, it was full of water, so many times,” she said.
When the first landslide hit, Lindman said she thought it would only take a few hours for them to clear the road, so she went grocery shopping, picking out her family’s favorite foods. She thought it would be raining for a few days.
“Usually when we get rained in, I end up making food that everybody requests in my house,” Lindman said.
Instead she was cut off from them.
Being separated from her family for the first two days after the flood was stressful for Lindman, but she was eventually reunited with them. The personal chef didn’t waste anytime getting to work. With donated goods, Lindman and her volunteers have served up everything from tamale pie to kalua pig and baked chickens.
Overall, Lindman said, running the soup kitchen has been rewarding, but she couldn’t have done it without all the volunteers who have worked countless hours.
“It’s my way of helping and I don’t have one regret. Not even an inch,” she said.
In addition to cooking, keeping a positive vibe — even when you’re faced with difficult times — is the key to finding the way out of the negativity. That has been an important part of how Lindman has run the kitchen.
“Good food can really be very healing and can bring a smile to just about anyone’s face,” Lindman said.
The kitchen, she said, also provides a nice spot for the community to come together and talk about their day, as well as coordinate needs for community members.
“It wasn’t just a meal, it was a time to check in with everybody, and I think that was the biggest benefit for most, along with the food,” Lindman said.
When the storm hit, Haena resident Nicole Fowler, who has also been helping with the soup kitchen, was home alone with her two kids.
“Our house is two stories. When I went to bed that night, my daughter was upstairs with me in my bed, my son was downstairs and the water was in our yard, to our porch and coming up our porch,” she said.
That evening, the thunder was so loud it woke her up, so she went downstairs to check on her son. He was terrified, so she brought him upstairs for the remainder of the evening.
“When I got up the next morning, our yard was completely dry. I could not believe it. I don’t know what kind of drainage was there, but it was so shocking,” she said.
As she looked out into her yard, Fowler said she immediately felt thankful that her home wasn’t damaged. She also knew she’d be helping people recover from the devastation — and she’s been helping ever since.
“My kids come up here, they help sweep, they help stock, they help set up plates and anything like that,” Fowler said. “It was so remarkable to watch her (Lindman), even that first night. Nobody even said a word, she just came in and started making food.”
That experience, she said, was something so beautiful to watch and be a part of, that she’s been back every night since then.
“Every single day that she’s here, I’m here. I love to be around her. I love to be around these ladies. I love to watch the people’s face when you can tell they’re so happy to have this hot meal, they’re so happy to have a fresh salad. It’s beautiful,” Fowler said.
Going through this disaster has taught Fowler that she’s a much stronger person than she realized. And that on Kauai, the aloha spirit is strong.
“It is a strong loving community down here. When it’s a need, people love each other, they care for each other, everybody is family here and they would do anything for their neighbor,” she said.
Up on Wainiha Powerhouse Road, Hana Neerings, who was visiting her hanai family that weekend, stepped out of the home she was staying at the night of the storm to find not one, but two, raging, overflowing rivers, just 20 feet from the foundation of the home.
The waterway, she said, is usually a little stream. During the night they heard loud crashes, which turned out to be big boulders crashing down from the mountain, into the streams.
“I’m lucky. I love storms, but that was scary,” she said.
The Wainiha home wasn’t damaged, but her home in Wailua was flooded from a cow pasture.
“I’m personally intact. I’m just grateful nobody died. It’s amazing. It’s an amazing miracle and it’s been really amazing to live in the deep level of love that’s coming up from the community,” Neerings said.
A day or two after the flood, Neerings said she was still in shock, so she went to the soup kitchen seeking the comfort of a friend. Ever since then, she’s been volunteering.
“I just needed the comfort of a friend’s presence and she was just so tired and she was chopping cabbage and I was like,‘Can I help?’ and we were slammed for six hours,” she said.
Neerings said volunteering at the soup kitchen has helped her heal.
“Coming here is really great because we’re working very hard. It’s this forward, positive focus and then people come at the end of the day, there’s community,” she said.
Lindman said she would like to keep the soup kitchen open for at least another week or two — as long as there’s a need for it.
I’ll tell you, there is nothing like a good hot meal and fresh salad, especially if you had freeze dried MRE’s for over two weeks, during activation of Hurricane Iniki!