“She’s the boss,” said Kamala Knudsen Thursday during Keiki Day at the Kapa‘a Community Pantry located in The Kaua‘i Store.
“She’s the manager of the Kapa‘a Community Pantry. We just follow along as best as we can,” she said of daughter Emilia Knudsen.
Thursday, which coincides with Keiki Day at the pantry located inside The Kaua‘i Store, Emilia Knudsen took to social media, inviting people (preferably keiki) to come “celebrate Shirley Temple Day for Keiki Day.
“Emilia so wants to brighten up the day for the keiki,” Kamala said in her social-media post.
“She says that kids really need some fun. We have so many angels here today. One aunty baked cakes, and there is another inside helping with the pantry. Emilia and her friend Isabella Omana are making Shirley Temple drinks.”
Rick Burton of The Kaua‘i Store said Keiki Day was pretty busy, with about 25 boxes of food moving out of the pantry managed by Emilia, who is a fifth-grade student at Kanuikapono Public Charter School in Anahola.
“This is a true community pantry,” Burton said.
“We’re not dependent on any of the county funding, or funding from the food banks, because of the paperwork. Emilia sells her artwork at the Kilauea farmers’ market on Saturday, and that funds what she can buy for the shelves. We also started carrying some of her artwork here to help her. Other items come from people who donate to the pantry, and I’m sure some of the items come from their own pantry.”
He said the face of the pantry has also changed since starting up several weeks ago.
“We still worry about my homeless friends,” Burton said.
“But now we’re getting the unemployed people and families who don’t understand the system enough to be able to get any of the benefits. They don’t have anyone to help them, or even explain the language so they can get registered. We do approximately 30 boxes a week, which is a lot more than when we started out,” he said.
Isobel Storch took advantage of no-farmers’-market day to bring her granddaughter Florence Toyofuku to enjoy being dressed up in her colorful party dress and cowboy boots.
The little preschooler was immediately embraced by Emilia and her best friend Omana, and the trio frolicked before the camera set up by professional photographer Sandy Swift.
Kamala said she is not sure what Emilia will set up for the next keiki day.
“We’re thinking maybe a book exchange,” Kamala said
“But she is the manager, and she says, ‘We’re all going to be OK if we help each other.”
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Dennis Fujimoto, staff writer and photographer, can be reached at 245-0453 or dfujimoto@thegardenisland.com.
