KAUMAKANI — Did you see the price of gasoline?
Kaua‘i Independent Food Bank Board President Donna King said the inflation following the coronavirus is one of the driving forces behind the need for food.
“On Kaua‘i, having a car is a necessity,” King said. “You put gas in the car and there’s little left for anything else. And, it’s not just the gas prices. Everything is going up everywhere. And, there’s no relief.”
She compared that to the early stages of the pandemic, when prices were more stable and there were relief funds available to families to help cope with the problems.
KIFB, in partnership with several organizations including the Kaua‘i Lifeguard Association, East Kaua‘i Lions Club, Kaua‘i Filipino Chamber of Commerce and local individual volunteers like Hi‘ilei Berg, the reigning Little Miss Kaua‘i, distributed more than 300 food packages on Saturday.
“People just drive through this town,” said Kelvin Moniz, KIFB executive director. “The bigger towns have food distributions, but they forget about the small towns where there is a real need. Today’s distribution is drive-thru, but look at how many people don’t even have cars. We need to get the walk-ups taken care of across the road so they don’t get run over.”
The distribution comes on the heels of the recent launch of food delivery to kupuna in the Kaumakani and Pakala camps through a partnership with the West Kaua‘i United Methodist Church, Gay &Robinson and KIFB.
“This program is part of our kupuna program, where we provide food for kupuna once a month,” Moniz said. “We are really lucky because the West Kaua‘i UMC delivers the food to kupuna.”
The KIFB also hosts emergency food distributions each Wednesday from 10:30 a.m. at its Nawiliwili warehouse.
“If people need, we have something,” Moniz said. “They leave with something.”
•••
Dennis Fujimoto, staff writer and photographer, can be reached at 245-0453 or dfujimoto@thegardenisland.com.
