KAPA‘A — Chef Brentten Rapozo of The Musubi Truck was cranking out the keiki meals Monday at the truck off Kukui Street in Kapa‘a.
“We’re going to be doing a lot of keiki meals today,” Rapozo said. “I’ve got some of da bombs created, but today is going to be a lot of keiki meals.”
Monday marked the first day of the “Feed the Keiki” campaign put on by The Musubi Truck. The final day of school was Friday before students adjourned for the winter break, and without school some students may not have access to regular meals.
Monday was the first weekday of break, with the clear-if-not-windy, weather drawing a crowd to the Mayor Bryan J. Baptiste Sports Complex.
“We’ve already distributed some packages,” said Kelly Kakalia of The Musubi Truck. “We’ve already received enough to take care of 863 meals of the 2,000 we budgeted for.”
Among the customers, Kalalea and Selah Kuhaulua waited patiently for the lunch line to move before getting their keiki lunches.
Quietly, the sisters adjourned to an available picnic table and, without a word, set out to explore the contents of the brown paper sack — an original Spam musubi with Rapozo’s secret sauce, a bag of chips and juice.
“Spam and rice,” their mother said. “It’s their favorite food.”
Kakalia said that under the terms of the free-lunch-food-for-keiki program, the Kaua‘i Skate ‘Ohana distributes the tickets to keiki who need help with food during the winter break. Aloha Exchange also is helping to distribute the tickets to keiki and social workers who know where the keiki needs are.
“One of the people who saw the article about feeding the keiki, the Kaua‘i Independent Food Bank, said they’re going to deliver some bags of rice and Spam,” Kakalia said. “This is great news because that means we can go beyond the 2,000-meal goal and feed more keiki.”
Working with Kaua‘i Skate ‘Ohana, The Musubi Truck will prepare meals so the ‘ohana can deliver the meals to other parts of the island.
“They’re coordinating all of this,” Kakalia said. “They’ll let us know how much and when we need to have the lunches prepared so they can deliver to the other parts of the island. As an example, they had an event at the Hanapepe skate park Sunday where we could’ve sent some food.”
Individuals, businesses and families can join the effort by contributing to help feed the keiki. A contribution of $5 feeds one keiki, and can be made online at The Musubi Truck website at themusubitruck.square.site/ or dropping off the donations at The Musubi Truck, 4548 Kukui St. in Kapa‘a.
“Today is just the first day,” Kakalia said. “We have three weeks to go.”
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Dennis Fujimoto, staff writer and photographer, can be reached at 245-0453 or dfujimoto@thegardenisland.com.
