NAWILIWILI — Leona Perez of the Kauai Independent Food Bank was just waiting for the close of day Thursday when the truck from Dow Agrosciences rolled into the loading area. The big rig wheeling in meant there was a lot
NAWILIWILI — Leona Perez of the Kauai Independent Food Bank was just waiting for the close of day Thursday when the truck from Dow Agrosciences rolled into the loading area.
The big rig wheeling in meant there was a lot of work to do.
“I was OK with that until they opened the gates,” Perez said. “The corn, all loose ears, was filled all the way to the gate. I wasn’t going to unload all of that.”
Kelvin Moniz, the KIFB executive director, said he was on his way to attend Freedom Fest at the Pacific Missile Range Facility at the invitation of the base commander.
“I couldn’t let the guys do that by themselves,” Moniz said. “I turned around and came back to help.”
As the fresh corn was being unloaded, Randell Giminiz rolled in with the van overflowing with food from Kojima Store which celebrated its final day on June 30.
“This is stuff which was left over when the doors closed,” Moniz said, estimating there was more than 3,000 pounds of food. “We don’t have time to weigh all this in before the July 4 holiday, but it’s more than $5,000. Randell has been working at Kojima’s all day.”
A note from Kojima’s to The Garden Island states that “even after closing its doors this past June, Kojima’s is still expressing its mahalo to Kauai by generously donating more than $13,000 of food to the Kauai Independent Food Bank.”
Moniz juggled the Kojima Store arrival with the unloading of freshly harvested corn.
“Stephanie Iona coordinated this effort,” Moniz said. “Dow planted an acre of corn for distribution to the Freedom Fest and to its employees. Those ears were hand-picked and delivered, Wednesday. But Dow needed to clear the acre of the remaining corn and used a machine to harvest everything Thursday and deliver to the two food banks.”
Moniz estimated the Dow Agroscience contribution at about 4,000 pounds.
