LIHU‘E — With the state Department of Education teachers reporting on August 3 for their first day in school, Kumu’s Cupboard, a free school-supply store for Kaua‘i educators, will be opening for 10 straight days beginning July 20.
“We haven’t been here since the COVID-19 shut everybody down in March,” said Elyse Litvack, one of Kumu’s Cupboard founders.
“When we re-open, everyone needs to wear a face mask. Everything will be operated so it becomes COVID-19-compliant. People will register on the outside of the store and, once inside, each person has 30 minutes to shop. This is all to stay within the guidelines set up by the pandemic.”
One of the biggest needs for the teacher resource center is donations — the root of Kumu’s Cupboard, where people or businesses donate school supplies or funds to acquire school supplies, the staff stocks the shelves with these donations, and educators from public, private and charter schools are able to shop for free.
“One of our biggest sources of revenue comes from the Visitor Industry Charity Walk,” Litvack said. “This year, because of the novel coronavirus, the walk didn’t materialize. We can use help to help the teachers.”
The outlet is located in the Kukui Grove Marketplace near the former Big Kmart and Pier 1 stores.
A facet of the reopening will be the use of the website for promoting a lot of the information from Kumu’s Cupboard to teachers. This includes donations, store hours, a more-complete shopping list of items available and teacher requests, including the request for student backpacks that will be available once students return to class, which according to the DOE academic calendar is Tuesday, ug. 4.
“We’re having backpacks of school supplies available,” Litvack said. “But it will be available only after school starts, and must be requested through the form by the teacher.”
Litvack said she’s seen the need for school supplies grow, and because of its scarcity, wants to wait until after the free school supplies giveaways are done before releasing their inventory. Kumu’s backpacks are separated into divisions for kindergarten/grade one, grades two through five, and middle/high school.
“The need for school supplies is great,” Litvack said. “We’ve emptied several shelves of material, and with families not being well off and store shelves not as well stocked because they share the space with needs for the coronavirus, there is a demand for school supplies.”
She said Kumu’s Cupboard is also offering new materials in health.
“We just want to be sure we have an adequate supply of material to get the school year started,” Litvack said.
Kumu’s Cupboard hours are as follows: July 20, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.; July 21, 3:30 to 7 p.m.; July 22, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.; July 23, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.; July 24, 3:30 to 7 p.m.; July 25, 3:30 to 7 p.m.
Info: kumuscupboard.org, or Litvack, 639-4675
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Dennis Fujimoto, staff writer and photographer, can be reached at 245-0453 or dfujimoto@thegardenisland.com.
