HANAMA‘ULU — “Happy New Year to you,” the kupuna sang as she shook her homemade string of bells in time with the composition that borrowed from a baby’s lullaby Thursday as she sat in her car through the process of the food distribution taking place at the King’s Chapel property in Hanama‘ulu.
The singing and bell-ringing continued as the car inched through the people lining the informal path, and beyond the final loading station.
“This is a lot of food,” said Pastor Steve Franks of King’s Chapel. “It’s bigger than our normal food drive. This is a bumboocha food drive.”
Minister Victoria Franks said the food drive was a last-minute event made possible by contributions coming in for New Year.
Some of the donations included rotisserie chicken, pumpkin pies and other food that, when combined, resulted in complete hot meals. These donations combined with groceries and nonperishables picked up from the Hawai‘i Foodbank Kaua‘i helped some 300 families.
“The family meal was donated by Jake Mauer,” Victoria said. “The groceries are from the Hawai‘i Foodbank Kaua‘i, and the volunteers, all members of King’s Chapel, are not the ones we use during the twice-monthly food distribution. These people all stepped up so we could get the food out to people. We even had some people who already left coming by to help package the food.”
Volunteers measured out the food so all the cars waiting could get fair shares.
“If we have leftover, we’ll turn it over to the social workers who will get the hot meals, especially, to where the homeless people stay,” Victoria Franks said.
“We do hot food for the homeless quite often.”
The special drive-thru food distribution was a lot bigger than the regular ones hosted by King’s Chapel twice a month.
“Right now, we do about 150 packages per month,” Victoria Franks said. “During the height of the pandemic, we were at about 500 packages a month. We’re slowly getting back to normal.”
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Dennis Fujimoto, staff writer and photographer, can be reached at 245-0453 or dfujimoto@thegardenisland.com.
