Food bank drives break all records

The goals of the Kauai Food Bank annual holiday food and fund drive that ended late last month were 20,000 pounds of food and $20,000.

Both of those goals were surpassed by heretofore unseen distances, said Judith “Judy” Lenthall, Kauai Food Bank executive director.

“It’s record-breaking,” she said of the 29,178 pounds of food and $29,748.30 collected.

And the cash total does not include a separate campaign that will cost parttime Kapa’a resident Larry Bowman $20,000.

A frequent reader of the online version of The Garden Island when he is at another of his homes in California, the entrepreneur offered up the Kaua’i challenge and pledged to match dollar-for-dollar the first $20,000 of donations to a separate Kauai Food Bank campaign, Lenthall said.

That campaign saw donations of $24,310.49, which will be nearly doubled by the $20,000 donation from Bowman, owner of Falko Partners, LLC, and a property owner in Kapa’a.

Even with the successes the Kauai Food Bank still ended 2005 in the red, Lenthall said.

Also, the 15 tons of food collected doesn’t go very far, as Kauai Food Bank staff members move about 86,000 pounds of food a month, feeding thousands of Kauaians every month, half of them children and the elderly, she concluded.