KAPA‘A — Deacon Mary Margaret Smith, of the St. Michael and All Angels Church, said the wonderful thing about the Community Thanksgiving Lunch is to see all the people coming together, regardless of beliefs, and enjoying each other’s company at the All Saints Gym on Thursday.
Sally Rogers, who co-chaired this year’s lunch with Kathy Miyake, said the Kapa‘a Interfaith Association, including the two new organizations — the Center for Spiritual Living, and the Jewish Community of Kaua‘i — planned for 1,400 Thanksgiving meal. The meals were prepared and served by Chefs Mark and Wendy Oyama and the ‘ohana at Contemporary Flavors Catering, who sported uniform blue Thanksgiving shirts.
Kapa‘a Interfaith Association participating churches included All Saints Episcopal Church, St. Catherine’s Catholic Church, Kapa‘a Hongwanji Temple, Kapa‘a Jodo Mission, Kapa‘a Seventh Day Adventist Church, Kapa‘a United Church of Christ, Kapa‘a First Hawaiian Church, Center for Spiritual Living and Jewish Community of Kaua‘i.
These churches got support from its children’s ministries, the lunch’s title sponsor Southwest Airlines, the Punua family, Kaua‘i Coffee Company, Sandy and Doug McMasters, Esaki’s Produce, Kapa‘a Hongwanji State Social Concerns Committee, Big Save/Times Supermarkets, students of Kahili Adventist School and Kaua‘i Summer Brass Band.
“We just came to support the band,” said Noel Mock of the Kaua‘i Community College bookstore. “We’re not having lunch because we have other plans. We just came to hear the band.”
Chef Alan Okuhara of Contemporary Flavors said they cooked up more than 850 pounds of turkey for the lunch. Mark Oyama said Contemporary Flavors has been doing the lunch since 2008, when they started with 500 meals.
Over at Kapa‘a Hongwanji Temple, Chef Wendy Oyama and Steven Nakata led the serving line of to-go meals that were delivered to “those not physically able to drive to Kapa‘a.” People preparing the deliveries included volunteers from Center for Spiritual Living (CSL), which recently acquired a lease from the Kapa‘a Hongwanji for its social hall.
“This is our first year of participating,” said Charles Woolfork of CSL. “We’re excited.”
Meanwhile, down the street, the Sheraton Kaua‘i at Coconut Beach made arrangements for first responder crews from the Kaua‘i Police Department, Kaua‘i Fire Department, Kapa‘a and Ka‘ikea fire stations, and American Medical Response came to the Waipouli resort to pick up meals for the crews on duty on Thursday.
“The Sheraton Kaua‘i at Coconut Beach wanted to do something for the first responders who had to work, today,” said Barbara Gusman of the Sheraton Coconut Beach. “The first responders do so much for our hotel, we wanted to do something for them. They’re always here for us.”
