LIHU‘E — More than 107,200 pounds of food have been dished out through the Hawai‘i Foodbank Kaua‘i Branch Kokua No Ka ‘Ohana food distributions, said Tish Ruiz Friday during the briefing for the final distribution for the series that started in September.
“This is the largest one, with 700 families registered for pick up,” said Chyenne Beach, community-development specialist for the Hawai‘i Foodbank Kaua‘i Branch. “Not only is this the largest, we were booked up early Monday.”
Cars lined up for the pickup on both sides of the four-lane exit at Vidinha Stadium in a traffic pattern designed by Hawai‘i Foodbank Kaua‘i Branch Operations Manager Lee Remigio during the course of the Kokua series and controlled by volunteer Robert Ibia, who has been handling traffic duty for each of the Kokua distributions.
Entry for the drive-thru, no-contact pickup was through the four-lane exit road, and flowed past six distribution points manned by volunteers from Koloa Landing Resort, St. Raphael Church, Holy Cross Church, Walmart, Alu Like kupuna and others.
Food packages centered around the Aloha Box, each containing ground beef, chicken, a vegetable blend and Hawaiian sweet rolls. Additional items included a case of saimin, eggs, a bag of onions, assorted canned goods, and for this one, special bottles of hand sanitizers and bottled water.
“This is real good stuff,” said Michelle Panoke, who was handling the Hawai‘i Foodbank Kaua‘i Branch tent at the final Kaua‘i Housing Connect outreach at Lydgate Park in the homeless encampment. “This came from Honolulu, and it makes your hands soft. Not only that, it smells good,” she said of the hand sanitizer.
Dr. Addison Bulosan, one of the Hawai‘i Foodbank Kaua‘i Branch advisory board members, teamed with Stacy Ramos to provide live entertainment celebrating the final Kokua No Ka ‘Ohana food distribution.
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Dennis Fujimoto, staff writer and photographer, can be reached at 245-0453 or dfujimoto@thegardenisland.com.
