Kudos and mahalo to Markeeta Smith of Kauai Fresh Farms, who spent her Friday morning working with Kelvin Moniz of the Kauai Independent Food Bank (they got some, too) in delivering (“a significant amount of”) fresh salads to the U.S. Coast Guard (Clay Wilbanks and Sean Keeman ran into Markeeta at the Nawiliwili Small Boat Harbor parking lot), the Transportation Security Administration, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture at the Lihue Airport for those federal workers working without paychecks. And, as the last bags and cartons were being off-loaded, word came in — the partial government shutdown was over, for now!
Kudos and mahalo to Markeeta Smith of Kauai Fresh Farms, who spent her Friday morning working with Kelvin Moniz of the Kauai Independent Food Bank (they got some, too) in delivering (“a significant amount of”) fresh salads to the U.S. Coast Guard (Clay Wilbanks and Sean Keeman ran into Markeeta at the Nawiliwili Small Boat Harbor parking lot), the Transportation Security Administration, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture at the Lihue Airport for those federal workers working without paychecks. And, as the last bags and cartons were being off-loaded, word came in — the partial government shutdown was over, for now!
The next big question is when are the next paychecks coming, and how does that affect the multi-union food distribution that is scheduled for the next three Thursdays at the Hawaii Government Employees Association offices on Akahi Street in Lihue (they’ve got a Kendall Scholarship rummage sale going on until lunchtime!).
Happy birthday to Fumiyuki Shimatsu of Kekaha, who celebrated his 101st birthday Saturday!
And congratulations to Ron Wiley, who is now program director for Shaka 103.1 FM (see the story and photo, D1)!
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Dennis Fujimoto, staff writer and photographer, can be reached at 245-0453 or dfujimoto@thegardenisland.com.
