NAWILIWILI — The Kauai Independent Food Bank was beneficiary of extra help when more than 50 volunteers showed up to help, starting on Monday afternoon.
The volunteers from the three groups helped create backpacks, repackaged rice and cleaned and sorted merchandise.
“The volunteers are really fast,” said Kelvin Moniz, the executive director of the food bank. “Some of them even brought their children. They’ve done a lot of work, especially packing all those backpacks.”
The Keiki Backpack program goes out weekly and is distributed to keiki, who would otherwise not have any food for the weekend because school is out. A backpack contains enough food for the keiki to have food for the weekend.
Alaska Airlines, under its Alaska Care program, volunteered along with some of the children and spouses of associates, as well as people flying in from off-island. Right on the heels of the Alaska Airlines group, the Kauai All Girl Rodeo Association contingent continued work started by the Alaska group on Monday.
The United Airlines group continued its support that started with the United Airlines hosting an in-house food drive earlier in the year at the Lihue Airport station on Wednesday morning.
“This is a slow time of the year for us, so we can afford to do this,” said Wendrick Yee, the United Airlines manager at the Lihue Airport. “It’s not just us. All the other airlines have a slow time before the holiday travel starts.”
During the cleaning and sorting, volunteers check for container damage like bent cans, rusty cans and more. Additionally, food is checked for compliance of the item’s effective date before being wiped down and shelved for shoppers.
Volunteers also repackaged rice into more individualized servings that are included in backpacks and emergency food packages.
“We’re feeding people,” said a KAGRA volunteer. “If I can handle a bag of horse feed, this bag of rice is easy.”
The Kauai Independent Food Bank is a 501 (c) (3) charitable organization, which relies on tax-deductible monetary donations, grants, gifts and perishable and nonperishable food donations.
For more information, visit www.kauaifoodbank.org.
