PUHI — A car-less individual clutched his placard for food and silently joined traffic directors during the food distribution taking place at the Kaua‘i Community College parking lot on Saturday.
“I don’t wanna just take,” the individual told Hawai‘i Foodbank Kaua‘i officials, who spearheaded the Saturday distribution. “I wanna do something.”
The individual was among more than 500 individuals and families receiving food for Thanksgiving from the two food distributions, which started on Friday and continued through Saturday morning.
The two food banks — the Kaua‘i Independent Food Bank and the Hawai‘i Foodbank — received help from community partners to provide food packages that were oriented toward the Thanksgiving holiday.
Some of the community partners included the Kaua‘i Lifeguard Association, the Zonta Club of Kaua‘i, the East Kaua‘i Lions Club, the Lions Club of Kaua‘i, the Westside Christian Assembly of God and the Hawai‘i Lodging and Tourism Association (HLTA), Kaua‘i. Individual volunteers, like the employees from Keoki’s Paradise, also turned out to help out.
The Zonta Club of Kaua‘i joined the action ahead of the launch of its 33-year-old Zonta Foundation Holiday Fund during the Gratitude Day celebration at Kukui Grove Center, as well as its upcoming 16 Days of Activism campaign, which starts on Nov. 24 at Kaua‘i Society of Artists gallery.
The KIFB and volunteers on Friday distributed more than 250 food packages under the teasing aroma of freshly baked cookies wafting from the certified kitchen in the Kaua‘i Veterans Center, where other volunteers were cooking as Kaua‘i Handworks craft fair leaders set up for the Saturday event.
KIFB executive director Kelvin Moniz was absent after being activated to officiate one of the Hawai‘i High School Athletic Association state championship football games, instead leaving his wife and son to help move the food through the drive-thru pickup that required no preregistration.
“If it wasn’t for the HLTA Kaua‘i, we wouldn’t have turkeys,” said Hawai‘i Foodbank Kaua‘i Impact Manager Tish Remigio, who directed the Saturday food distribution of 300 food packages to a first-come, first-served line of cars that snaked through the college parking lot.
Like the Zonta Club of Kaua‘i, Samira Siale, the HLTA Kaua‘i director, and board members came from the annual Malama awards on Thursday night where the best of the hotel industry members were recognized for their individual contributions to the hospitality industry on Kaua‘i.
“Everyone deserves to have food on the table,” Remigio said. “Happy Thanksgiving!”
