LIHU‘E — It takes volunteers to get food distributed to those who need it, and Kelvin Moniz, operations manager for the Kaua‘i Food Bank, said they can still use some help. “We’re at about 60 percent of what we need
LIHU‘E — It takes volunteers to get food distributed to those who need it, and Kelvin Moniz, operations manager for the Kaua‘i Food Bank, said they can still use some help.
“We’re at about 60 percent of what we need for the Food Collection Day, April 17,” Moniz said. “People don’t need to stay the entire day, just what they can afford to spend.”
That ties in with the “If Can, Can” theme of the Kaua‘i Food Bank’s Holiday Food and Fund Drive and continues into the Spring Healthy Food and Fund Drive with an added “We’re All in This Together” twist in trying to attain the goals of $40,000 and 40,000 pounds of food.
Kaua‘i Mayor Bernard Carvalho Jr. joined the Kaua‘i County Council in honoring the work being done by the Kaua‘i Food Bank in trying to keep the hungry people on the island fed.
The mission of the Kaua‘i Food Bank is to provide food for the hungry, respond to emergencies and eliminate hunger on Kaua‘i, states Carvalho’s proclamation announcing April as Kaua‘i Food Bank Drive Month.
Demand for food increased by 40 percent between 2008 and 2009, states the proclamation. But food distribution increased by only 37 percent.
In 2009, the Kaua‘i Food Bank distributed more than 863,000 pounds of food to almost 48 active member agencies with the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program securing another 357,671 SNAP pounds of food.
These figures do not reflect the outreach program to the Keiki Cafe, an after-school program worked in partnership with the Boys & Girls Club, Waimea Clubhouse, and the children’s Back Pack program which fills the need for mentoring and assistance to children on the Eastside.
Judy Lenthall, executive director of the Kaua‘i Food Bank, said the Back Pack program was started when the staff discovered there were children who go without food during the weekends when there is no school. The problem is compounded with the initiation of furlough Fridays, which add more days when school food is not available for children.
Carvalho, in presenting the proclamation, went one better, as Kaua‘i Food Bank staff and board were kept busy collating the different collections from the county’s different departments which conducted their own mini drives to help with the increased demand for food.
Last week, Lyle Otsuka, manager of the Banyan Harbor Resort condominiums in Nawiliwili, delivered 20, 25-pound bags of rice, a result of the resort’s “ricycling” program where 10 percent of the project’s recycling funds are set aside to get rice for the food bank.
With that delivery, Moniz said the Kaua‘i Food Bank is at about 20 percent of its Spring Healthy Food and Fund Drive, but more is needed, and he is hopeful the Food Collection Day on April 17 will help the goal.
To help with the food bank’s mission of feeding Kaua‘i’s hungry, Wilcox Memorial Hospital announced it will be hosting a food drive, April 8 at its conference rooms.
Volunteers are needed at various times from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. at retail locations island-wide on April 17, Moniz said.
They will work with Kaua‘i Food Bank staff and leaders at Walmart, the Big Kmart, Ching Young Village, the Kukui Grove Center, Big Save in Koloa and Waimea, Ishihara Market, Safeway, and the Princeville Shopping Center.
Food-bank demographics state that one-third of those served are children, and about 10 percent are elderly.
Contributions can be dropped off at any county fire station on the island, or at the Kaua‘i Food Bank facility in Nawiliwili.
For more information, visit www.kauaifoodbank.org or call 246-3809.
