NAWILIWILI — Kelvin Moniz, executive director of the Kaua‘i Independent Food Bank, said the recent Spring Break Food Giveaway took care of more than 1,500 individuals, nearly 600 being keiki, and more than 200 kupuna when it took place during spring break.
PepsiCo was among the field of partners in the food distribution that addressed the need for food during the time that school meals were not available for students.
“We have supported several food banks in Hawai‘i, and in 2020 PepsiCo donated more than 6,160 cases statewide,” said Ryan Sobota, PepsiCo general manager of the market division.
“For the Spring Break Food Giveaway earlier this month, we donated products for the food giveaway to support 500 families while on spring break. This donation was made to help feed families that would not have access to meals outside of school while on spring break. Our community support extends year round.”
During the recent storms and subsequent state-declared state of emergency, many residents were severely impacted by the flooding, road closures due to the landslide in Hanalei and overall damage to their communities. The PepsiCo team has been on the ground and on water, doing whatever they could to help those in need, states information from PepsiCo Beverages North America’s West Division.
As of March 17, PepsiCo has donated more than 10,000 bottles of water and 400 cases of food and beverages to help more than 3,000 residents impacted by the weather events in Hawai‘i.
With more than 300 volunteers involved in the effort, the PepsiCo team plans to make additional donations to support residents of the Maui area. To support Kaua‘i’s North Shore, PepsiCo has partnered with Hawai‘i Volcanic to charter boats and sail pallets of Aquafina and Hawai‘i Volcanic water into Hanalei in support of the community’s residents who were cut off from the rest of the island by a landslide.
“Efforts on Kaua‘i were led by our Unit General Manager Mark Lauer, who connected with Hawai‘i Volcanic CEO, Founder and Owner Jason Donovan,” Sobota said. “Collectively, they came up with the idea to each donate pallets of water, and work with local teams to deliver resources via boat to the people of Hanalei.”
“From a Pepsi perspective, we donated 72 cases of Aquafina water, which was loaded and delivered to a staging area by a Pepsi driver,” Sobota said. “From there, the product was loaded onto a boat and sailed to Hanalei and given to residents. In addition to donating more than 1,700 bottles of water to Hanalei residents, Pepsi donated more than 50 cases of water to the Kaua‘i Independent Food Bank to support those impacted, in response to those affected during the storm and landslides.”
Sobota said that, in 2020, the PepsiCo team throughout the state supported more than 106 organizations, eight on Kaua‘i, including the Aloha Harvest, KIFB, Malama Kaua‘i, North Shore Christian Fellowship, River of Life Church, and the Wailua Community Association.
“We estimate more than 11,800 cases were donated to these organizations in 2020,” Sobota said.
“Specific to Kaua‘i, more than 2,600 cases of water was shared between the eight organizations. We are proud to report PepsiCo donated $45,000 in 2020 to various Hawai‘i organizations. We made a donation of $25,000 to the Hawai‘i Island United Way, and a series of $5,000 donations to each Hawai‘i Farm Bureau, Hawai‘i Foodbank, Aloha United Way and the Hawai‘i Restaurant Association.”
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Dennis Fujimoto, staff writer and photographer, can be reached at 245-0453 or dfujimoto@thegardenisland.com.
This article is basic Corporate Marketing and virtue signaling to the max. As a resident of Hanalei, I can tell you the “generosity” of corporations like Pepsi or Nestle is neither needed or welcome. They both have a well established record of privatizing clean ground water, at the expense of the local inhabitants and the environment through the billion of single use plastic bottles thrown away . . . Daily.
The North Shore Just needs the State to do what they have been paid for by our property taxes, which have increased by 700% in the last 20 years. Perhaps starting with fixing the $1.5M toilets at Blackpot.
Same. We live here too and nothing’s wrong with our water. This piece is advertising disguised as journalism.
Kauai government needs to start doing what we pay them to do.
I agree Joshua. This is wrong on so many levels. TGI you should have a bit more editorial discretion. Please.
Total PR marketing move. That might be well received elsewhere…however we can see right through. A company that contributes to more death and pollution around the world than any virus. And has been doing so for decades. Pepsico go kick rocks.