NAWILIWILI — You don’t need to be homeless to be hungry, said Kelvin Moniz, development officer for the Kaua‘i Food Bank. Moniz was explaining the many different reasons why people become hungry and how the demand for food has increased
NAWILIWILI — You don’t need to be homeless to be hungry, said Kelvin Moniz, development officer for the Kaua‘i Food Bank.
Moniz was explaining the many different reasons why people become hungry and how the demand for food has increased by some 25 percent since the economic downturn.
“We get about 5,000 emergency requests for food a month,” Moniz said.
Felica Cowden, the coordinator for the Akamai Learning program, had 13 of her middle school home school group at the Kaua‘i Food Bank where she concluded her day-long tour to various organizations and sites so the students could learn about food and producing food.
“We’re doing this as a study on essential services,” Cowden said. “Basically, our group focuses on learning-by-doing, so we had a visit to Esaki’s Produce and the mayor’s office before coming to the food bank.”
Cowden said the school supports the mayor’s goal of producing more food for the island and the students have been studying soil and growing things in the school’s garden.
Some of those results were carefully cleaned and packed before being unloaded into a shopping cart where they were presented to the Kaua‘i Food Bank.
“We can always use fresh produce, especially fresh herbs,” Moniz said. “Someone is going to have a good dinner, tonight.”
Among the contributed items were kale, chard, assorted mustards, lu‘au leaves, assorted fresh herbs and lemons that Cowden said were really good.
“We use water from the turtle pond,” she said, while a student’s face shriveled from remembering his experience tasting the fruit. “That makes the lemons really good.”
Cowden said what bothers her is the amount of fresh fruit in people’s yards that drops and goes unused.
“There should be a way those excess food can be harvested and help feed the hungry,” she said. “Some organization should take the lead in doing this. We should encourage leadership and do by example. That way we can fill some of the food bank’s needs.”
Moniz pointed out that farming is not an easy business and what may sound simple can turn out to be a complex task.
Cowden agreed, noting the group had just come from a farm.
“Farming is not an easy task,” she said. “But you control your own destiny.”
