KALAHEO — Sandy Poenhelt of The Right Slice was getting irritated with stories of visitors getting arrested for violating the 14-day quarantine for off-island arrivals initiated by Gov. David Ige.
“Regardless of what is happening with some ‘bad egg’ visitors trying to come to Kaua‘i now, we get a lot of love and aloha coming in, too,” Poenhelt said Tuesday morning while waiting on the chicken pot pie filling to cool down sufficiently for refrigeration. “During the last week, we have had more than a hundred pot-pie dinners donated — mostly from our mainland customers who would like to support Kaua‘i in our time of need.”
Poenhelt was in the process of trying to scale down her operation following the governor’s stay-at-home mandate, but was having her hands full with the additional orders.
“My workers are all on unemployment now,” the pie baker said. “I’m just trying to use up whatever supplies I have remaining — just doing enough to pay the electric bill and insurance. I never expected the customers’ donations.”
“This is pretty impressive,” Poenhelt said. “And the orders just keep coming. Last night there was a guy who ordered 25 pot pies. They all have their own situations at home to deal with, and they still worry about our people.”
Poenhelt did her first round of deliveries to the Kaua‘i Fire Department’s Koloa fire station.
“We always take care of them first,” Poenhelt said.
“But they asked us not to donate to them right now because they all are still working and collecting a paycheck. Now, we are working directly with local businesses to reach out to the employees hardest hit by this COVID-19 crisis, like families where both mom and dad are out of work.”
Between batches of pies baking and the creation of pie fillings, Poenhelt darted to the studio located behind the bakery to whip out fabric face masks while waiting for the cycles to complete.
“I must’ve done 15 laps between the bakery and studio yesterday,” she said. “I got the pattern from my mother, who works at a hospital in Wisconsin, and after I made one for myself, I’m using this material I had left over. It takes about 10 minutes to whip one out, and it’s perfect because, now, the baking cycle is about over.”
“The face masks?” she said. “It’s just a little something for the customers who come in. They still can’t find any. It’s like the painted rocks we were going to have for the Multiple Sclerosis Walk. It’s not happening, but now, we’re ready for Halloween.”
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Dennis Fujimoto, staff writer and photographer, can be reached at 245-0453 or dfujimoto@thegardenisland.com.
Sandy Poenhelt makes an important point (as well as some ono pies!). While there are some totally clueless and insensitive tourists out there, there are also many who genuinely good people, sending aloha to us from the mainland (and probably some snowbirds who were already here when the lockdown started). This trashing of tourists that we hear in some corners is disturbing. Yes, I’ve seen them in my neighborhood, and I’m not happy about it, but I’ve also received many messages of aloha from former guests at my vacation rental (where I voluntarily cancelled all April and May guests and gave full refunds, long before our great (and funny–who knew?) mayor closed vacation rentals down). They just write out of the blue to make sure I’m ok in this situation. Clearly, others are donating chicken pies. Let’s not lose sight of the fact that many tourists are good people who wish us well, so that we can treat them with common kindness when they return. I’m so grateful to Mayor Kawakami for being so proactive in doing all he can to keep Kauai safe (and entertained!)–I just wish Gov. Ige would follow suit, at the very least in asking the federal government to shut down all but essential travel. What exactly is he waiting for?!