LIHU‘E — Things have changed a lot since Steven Nishimura, a Kiwanis Club of Kaua‘i board member, has been doing the annual Kiwanis French toast breakfast. “The breakfast has been going on a long time,” Nishimura said. “I joined the
LIHU‘E — Things have changed a lot since Steven Nishimura, a Kiwanis Club of Kaua‘i board member, has been doing the annual Kiwanis French toast breakfast.
“The breakfast has been going on a long time,” Nishimura said. “I joined the club in 1979 and we’ve always had an annual fundraiser. The club was chartered back in the ‘60s, and they’ve always done something.”
Dewayne Kong, the club’s president, said there were more than 1,900 tickets sold before the event, and with tickets available at the door, he estimated more than 1,500 meals being served or taken out before the doors to the annual Kiwanis French toast breakfast closed, Sunday at Elsie Wilcox Elementary School cafeteria.
“We’re pretty lucky this year because we have good help,” Nishimura said. “We’re also fortunate because we have young members like Reiko Yoshida, Aryl Kaneshiro, Dalton Matsuyama and Scott Sato. They’re all here helping.”
Joining the Kiwanis, the Key Clubs from Kaua‘i and Kapa‘a high schools, numbering more than 100 students and operating under the auspices of the Kiwanis Club, worked in three shifts to help serve up the menu of French toast, scrambled eggs, Portuguese sausage, fruit cup and a scoop of rice sprinkled with furikake nori.
“The first shift had to be here at 5 a.m.,” said Megan Walsh, a Kaua‘i High School Key Club member. “We’re in the second shift that started at 7 a.m. There’s another shift coming in at 9 a.m. to help close.”
Nishimura said Kong, as president of the club, is the overall chair for the event, along with Peter Yukimura. Eric Yama, Clyde Nakaya and Harold Taira headed up the scrambled eggs, Darryl Maeda, affectionately known as the “rice master,” and David Haas were in charge of the rice, Russell Maeda, Patrick Cooney and Dirk Apau handled the sausage, Wayne Fujioka was in charge of the fruit cups, Mark Marshall and Scott Nonaka were in charge of the French toast and Greg Morishige and Derek Kawakami headed up the dining room.
“We’re here straight from church,” said Mary Lardizabal, director of the Kapa‘a Middle School chorus and ‘ukulele band, which entertained for about an hour. “Derek asked us, so we came, but it was pretty hard to do back-to-back performances.”
Nishimura said the quality of the meal is still there, attested to by Robert Tamura enjoying two meals with a content smile on his face, relishing the meal because his granddaughter had a bye in soccer.
“Today, the French toast is baked, the scrambled eggs steamed, but there is still considerable effort to maintain the consistency and quality,” Nishimura said. “Back when I joined, we cooked pork sausages in those black skillets. We had to make up the batter for the French toast and buy the loaves of bread from Loves Bakery to soak and cook.”
The Kiwanis Club of Kaua‘i meets Tuesday at noon at the Hanama‘ulu Cafe. Visit www.kiwanishawaii.org/kauai.html for more information on the organization.
