PO‘IPU — There was so much excitement Thursday during The Shops at Kukui‘ula South Shore food distribution done in partnership with the Kaua‘i Independent Food Bank.
PO‘IPU — There was so much excitement Thursday during The Shops at Kukui‘ula South Shore food distribution done in partnership with the Kaua‘i Independent Food Bank.
“Yikes,” said Stacie Chiba-Miguel, general manager of The Shops at Kukui‘ula. “In all this excitement, I almost forgot I have employees that are still on furlough. We need to make sure these employees are taken care of too.”
Packaging of the goods took place in one of the available spaces at the Po‘ipu center, utilizing community volunteers from the East Kaua‘i Lions Club, the Zonta Club of Kaua‘i and other individual community volunteers, including the management team of The Shops at Kukui‘ula, and Chantal Zarbaugh of the Kaua‘i Government Employees Federal Credit Union.
More than 300 food packages, each containing ground beef, soups, tuna, pasta, bread, eggs and a case of saimin accompanied by fresh produce that KIFB procured from participating vendors from the farmers’ market at The Shops at Kukui‘ula.
Cars started lining up at the mauka parking lot, being greeted by the survey team consisting of Pua Kaohelauli‘i and Blanca Gil of the state Department of Health Kaua‘i District Health Office, who had earlier assisted the Hawai‘i Foodbank Kaua‘i Branch at its Kokua No Ka ‘Ohana distribution at St. Raphael Church.
“One thing,” said a volunteer at The Shops at Kukui‘ula. “Koloa and the South Shore are being taken care of.”
With Halloween out of the way, the KIFB crew is setting its sights on Thanksgiving and the arrival of turkeys in the coming weeks.
