LIHU‘E — Halloween is now a memory on Friday, and the next project on the Corteva Agriscience docket is the distribution of its annual contribution to the two food banks on Kaua‘i.
The total contribution represents donations from the Corteva Agriscience associates and was divided equally between the Hawai‘i Foodbank Kaua‘i, and the Kaua‘i Independent Food Bank (KIFB).
“We tried to do it equally by eyeball,” said Yael Claussen, who along with Pamela Gettler, made the deliveries to the two food banks. “Rice is easy because they have the weight on the bags. But what about the cans of tuna? We tried to do it equally.”
The pair started the day’s run by delivering 648 pounds of food, and an undisclosed amount of monetary contributions to the Hawai‘i Foodbank Kaua‘i with its branch manager Wes Perreira leading the team of appreciative team members.
They followed up the Hawai‘i Foodbank Kaua‘i stop with a delivery to the Kaua‘i Independent Food Bank where Kelvin Moniz, the KIFB executive director, announced the delivery to weigh in at 664 pounds, and $500 in monetary contributions.
“That’s pretty good for eyeball estimation,” Claussen said. “We at Corteva Agriscience always give equally to all the food banks.”
Moniz said the contribution is timely because it helps fill the need for food that traditionally accompanies the arrival of the holiday season as food security is shaken by the rising costs of inflation, high rents and balancing the need to buy holiday gifts drawn out by the increasingly longer shopping periods.
Corteva Agriscience had earlier been busy harvesting, processing and delivering about 10,000 pumpkins with the Harvest Festival program, which saw pumpkins being delivered throughout the state for free giveaway to keiki and families that started early in October and wrapped up with Halloween.
“We only have a small window where we can transport the pumpkins before they start exploding,” Claussen said, announcing the Halloween program was over after disposing of the pumpkins that did not go out.
On O‘ahu, Hawai‘i News Now reported on Thursday that Aloun Farms, one of the participating Harvest Festival members on Kaua‘i, disposed of their Halloween pumpkins by donating a portion to the Honolulu Zoo, where the zoo inhabitants had a Halloween feast.
