KOLOA — Debbie Lindsey couldn’t remember, and neither could Kelvin Moniz. “Last year, I remember coming to pick up envelopes,” said James Hughes of the Kaua‘i Food Bank. “But never food.” Ray Carvalho, one of the Koloa School coordinators, said
KOLOA — Debbie Lindsey couldn’t remember, and neither could Kelvin Moniz.
“Last year, I remember coming to pick up envelopes,” said James Hughes of the Kaua‘i Food Bank. “But never food.”
Ray Carvalho, one of the Koloa School coordinators, said the students and parents contributed about 300 pounds of food for the weeklong drive which ended Friday.
“The drive was a competition between classes to see who could come up with the most pounds of food,” said Carvalho, who teamed with Shanlyn Parubrub for the collection.
“After one week, Miss Tristan Shigematsu’s third-grade class came up with about 50 pounds to take that competition.”
Moniz, who has been scrambling on food collections for about a week following the One Day Blitz last Saturday, said when students do collections, it’s a lot of food because they don’t bring in the bags of rice and other bulky items.
Instead, they bring in canned goods and more manageable pieces, Moniz said.
Koloa School joins other businesses, agencies and schools that have contributed to the Kaua‘i Food Bank’s Spring Food and Fund Drive which set a projected goal of $40,000 and 40,000 pounds of food.
“The One Day Blitz last Saturday was really good for us,” Moniz told Lindsey, the Koloa School principal, and Carvalho. “From the different locations around the island, there was more than $17,000 collected.”
In addition to the Blitz, Moniz said there have been collections done at Kaua‘i Island Utility Cooperative whose employees supplemented the volunteers’ efforts at the Blitz with a food collection of their own.
The KIUC internal food drive resulted in more than 2,400 pounds of food being added to the spring drive.
The Kaua‘i Police Department also conducted a food drive within its department, and close to 1,100 pounds of food were also picked up by Kaua‘i Food Bank workers, Moniz said.
Joining that effort, Moniz said he was at the Elsie Wilcox Elementary School on Friday where the students contributed 880 pounds of food from a food drive.
“The good thing about having students participate in food drives is the awareness it brings to the young people,” Moniz said. “This awareness helps to feed people who need food, and is more important now that fuel and food prices are increasing.”
Based on the collection, Monday, Moniz said the Kaua‘i Food Bank’s current level is at about $30,000 following the One Day Blitz.
“If we keep on the current trends, hopefully, we’ll be able to make our goal this time,” Moniz said.
Lindsey said the Koloa School students helped with the Kaua‘i Food Bank’s direct mail program last year, but she doesn’t remember when they were involved in a food collection effort.
“We’re still collecting,” Lindsey told Moniz. “We want to do more than one a year. Perhaps, we could plan on doing one closer to the holidays.”
People can still contribute to the Kaua‘i Food Bank’s Spring Food and Fund Drive by dropping off contributions of canned goods and other foods to any of the fire stations located around the island.
Contributions can also be dropped off at the Kaua‘i Food Bank’s Nawiliwili facility during its operating hours.
For more information, visit the Kaua‘i Food Bank Web site at www.kauaifoodbank.org, or call them at 246-4737.
•Dennis Fujimoto, photographer and staff writer, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 253) or dfujimoto@kauaipubco.com
