Lunch gobbled up in Po‘ipu

PO‘IPU — In the spirit of the Table 53 program that contributes thousands of dollars to local nonprofit organizations each month, the Sheraton Kaua‘i Resort and several community sponsors welcomed diners with over 2,000 lunches Friday during the We Donated. You Dine drive-thru lunch pickup.

“This was absolutely amazing,” said Stacie Chiba-Miguel, the general manager of The Shops at Kukui‘ula, one of the community sponsors. “We had 150 reservations in the first hour of posting the announcement, and by the end of 24 hours, we were sold out at 2,000 meals. There were people from all over — from Kekaha to as far away as Anahola.”

Chip Bahouth, Sheraton Kaua‘i general manager, was busy washing dishes Friday as other Sheraton Kaua‘i volunteers, many garbed in traditional Lei Day wear, scrambled to assemble the lunch of kalua, cabbage, sweet potato and watermelon in anticipation of the lineup of more than 500 cars. Each of the vehicle’s occupants were also presented lei in observance of May 1 being Lei Day in Hawai‘i as Hawaiian music greeted the cars into the pickup area.

“Somebody has to do this,” Bahouth said. “You need to get the others who are working.”

In addition to the Sheraton Kaua‘i, the home of Table 53 in the RumFire restaurant, help came from the Kaua‘i Down Under Dive team from Kaua‘i Tours, Hawaiian Style Surfing, the Kaua‘i Independent Food Bank, the Kaua‘i Police Department and the Hawai‘i National Guard.

“We are very appreciative of this,” said Moana Stanley, who waited with her husband Craig. “This was already maxed out before we called after reading about it in the newspaper. But they put us on a wait list, and we were called. We’ve been on complete lockdown since this COVID-19 thing — staying at the house, only going shopping when we need to, and cooking a lot of the meals. This is really good, and we appreciate the chance to get out.”

Guitarist Hal Kinnaman has also been shut down since COVID-19.

“I can’t teach because of the social distancing,” Kinnaman said. “I’ve been just mainly staying at home, and it’s a good thing I have my guitar. Having lunch like this gives me something to leave the house for instead of just grocery shopping.”

Pillare Mukai of The Shops at Kukui‘ula, working a variety of tasks ranging from setting up the checkpoint to packaging the to-go meals in manageable bundles, said this was not the only free meal in town.

“Earlier, I was helping Misha Anuhea Laney at the Aloha ‘Aina Juice Cafe setup for her free pitaya bowl giveaway to young people 18 years and older,” Mukai said. “I told her she was going to be smashed.”

True to form, the Aloha ‘Aina Juice Cafe in the Hokulei Village Shopping Center in Puhi was out of the 200 giveaway bowls within the first hour of the Friday giveaway.

“It was crazy,” Laney said. “People were lining up from 10:30. The minister of the Apologia Church, who gave us some money that we matched to produce the giveaway, came to help. He was late because of all the cars that were here for the giveaway, and when he did get in, he just couldn’t believe the rush.”

Chiba-Miguel said due to the success of the Table 53 We Donated. You Dine lunch, an event that started when the Sheraton Kaua‘i attempted to feed its furloughed employees and families and grew from its original 700 meals to now more than 2,000 meals, there are plans to host another, similar event in the future.

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Dennis Fujimoto, staff writer and photographer, can be reached at 245-0453 or dfujimoto@thegardenisland.com.