Holiday food drive bagging hunger

bags to help feed thousands of Kaua’i residents.

The folded paper grocery

bags and remittance envelopes will be delivered in the newspaper’s Holiday

Shopper today and the newspaper itself tomorrow in support of the Holiday Food

and Fund Drive sponsored by Kaua’i Food Bank.

In lieu of donating

non-perishable foods, people can put money in the remittance envelopes. For

every dollar donated, more than $15 in groceries can be distributed to the

needy, according to food bank officials.

In addition, non-perishable food

items can be dropped off at all Kaua’i Fire Department stations and the food

bank warehouse in Nawiliwili from today to Dec. 18.

Purchased or donated

food will feed not only the island’s current needy but also many of the 400

Amfac Sugar Kaua’i employees who will lose their jobs when the plantation shuts

down this Friday.

“It is a great way for the community to show it cares,”

said Helen Juliano, agency coordinator with the food bank.

Residents also

can help out by participating in the Fast for Hunger program, through which

people can skip meals and donate the cost for those meals to the food bank,

Juliano said.

The food bank feeds about 7,000 people each month, half of

whom are children and 25 percent are elderly. More than 107 non-profit agencies

and churches depend on the food bank for their programs to serve the

community.

More than 100 food drive contributors have been recruited by the

state and Kaua’i County, the private sector and churches to combat hunger on

Kaua’i.

For the Holiday Food and Fund Drive this year, the bags and

envelopes were stapled by employees of the Kaua’i Marriott and Beach Resort as

a community service project.

The food bank is a member of Aloha United Way

of Kaua’i.

Additional information is available from the food bank at

246-3809.

Staff writer Lester Chang and editor Pat Jenkins contributed

to this report.