KALAHEO — While families enjoyed Thanksgiving Thursday, Maya Inada of the Kalaheo Missionary Church and a group of volunteers were delivering meals — three times as many as last year — to the homebound and homeless from Po‘ipu through Mana
KALAHEO — While families enjoyed Thanksgiving Thursday, Maya Inada of the Kalaheo Missionary Church and a group of volunteers were delivering meals — three times as many as last year — to the homebound and homeless from Po‘ipu through Mana in a project she labeled Love Kaua‘i.
“There are a lot of people out there who cannot, for one reason or another, go to the places where meals are being served,” Inada said Wednesday night when making preparations. “There are more than 700 orders between the Kalaheo Missionary Church and the Kaua‘i Christian Fellowship. They’re going crazy down there, too.”
Robyn Herbig, one of the volunteers, said Inada draws her list of people by working with various agencies like the Family Health Service, schools, and from people she meets when she has a chance to go fishing.
The people are not just homebound elderly, but overflows to include families affected by the bad economy, said Eileen Kechloian, one of the volunteers who has done this type of volunteering when she lived on the Mainland.
“What Maya does is really from the heart and she needs help,” Kechloian said. “When I go to the Mainland, I buy stuff that she can use for her distributions.”
Lisa Thelen, another of the volunteers, said, “Once I was one who was being fed. Now I’m helping to feed others. This is the Circle of Life.”
She noted the benefit of having deliveries done to families’ homes.
“When I was down and needed help, pride got in the way and I couldn’t see me packing my children to eat at a shelter,” Thelen said. “Now, I’m in a position to help feed others and it’s a good feeling because I was once there.”
Thelen brought her grandmother’s recipe for cranberry sauce and oversaw the creation using fresh cranberries.
“We do nothing but the best,” said Bruce Herbig, another of the volunteers.
Inada said to prepare the meals for the homebound and needy, they roasted 75 turkeys, all donated except for five they went out to buy.
“I was at the oven all day roasting turkeys,” Inada said, noting that other volunteers helped by cooking turkeys at their homes and bringing the cooked birds to the church for parceling into the meals.
Kechloian said one of the hardest things about what Inada does is the need for money.
“Food is first and foremost, but to do the meals, there are other costs like the containers the meals need to be packed in,” Kechloian said. “That costs money and there aren’t that many discounts.”
Inada said the group of volunteers don’t just do it for Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter, or other special holidays — they do it every day.
Outside of the preparation for the special Thanksgiving meals, Inada said the group prepares dinner for about 80 families each Wednesday at the Pa‘anau Village in Koloa.
“We got some clothes and other items donated so we could distribute that to those families as well as the meal,” Inada said.
Inada also spearheads a backpack program for children who get to take home a backpack filled with food for the weekend. These children are also in the Po‘ipu to Mana area, she said.
The Kaua‘i Food Bank coordinates a similar program for children on Kaua‘i’s Eastside.
“No matter how bad the economy is, people are coming out to help us help others,” Inada said. “That’s the joy and reward of doing something like this.”
The owner/operator of Stiki Stuff, a firm that is part of the Kaua‘i Made program, Inada said she’s been so busy with helping others, she has cut back on creating stickers.
“We don’t need to go overseas to help because we have a lot of people here who need help,” Inada said. “I think God put me here to do this.”
She said if there are people who need help, she wants to know them.
“I just want to keep this thing rolling,” Inada said. “There’re going to be a lot of people getting fed.”
For those who want to help Inada with her crusade of helping others, call 332-0087.
