By Felix Sunny D’Souza
Kapalua Homeowners Food Box Distribution
This past fall, homeowners in Kapalua’s residential community gave back by raising over $100,000 in donations to create food boxes for more than 1,000 families in need. Each box contained numerous non-perishable items, a bag of locally-grown fresh produce, five pounds of beef and a $25 gift certificate for Island Grocery. Of the 100K donated, 20K was given to the Maui Food Bank to support other West Maui families.
Paddle for Hunger 2020
This year, Hawaiian Paddle Sports’ Paddle for Hunger fundraiser went virtual in support of the Maui Food Bank. Participants were encouraged to paddle around the island on stand-up paddle boards, canoes or surfboards. They clocked their time spent at sea, used GPS to plot their course and tagged photos to record their participation. This event has been helping local families since 2010, raising thousands in donations and celebrating the aloha spirit amongst Maui’s paddling community. hawaiianpaddlesports.com/paddle-for-hunger | mauifoodbank.org.
Hua Momona Farms Meal Kits
Hawai‘i’s number one organic microgreens producer, Hua Momona Farms, is now offering Maui Meal Kits to help local residents eat healthier and make better food choices. Their first line of kits is for a healthy stir fry and includes plenty of prepackaged raw vegetables such as green onions, peppers, eggplant and carrots. Not sure how to best cook them up? Try their recipe courtesy of Executive Chef Zach Laidlaw (huamomonafarms.com/pages/recipes). To purchase meal kits for your own family or to donate to those in need, visit MauiMealKits.com.
Down the Hatch & Coral Reef Alliance
Down the Hatch restaurant partnered with the Coral Reef Alliance (CRA) to support Clean Water For Reefs Maui. The CRA handed out starter kits to local guests which contained enough supplies to grow 50 native Hawaiian seedlings. The CRA will collect the plants once they’ve matured, and will root them in highly-erosive areas to help stabilize the soil. This will ultimately help prevent pollutants from entering the ocean and damaging Maui’s delicate coral reef ecosystem. For information or to grow some seedlings, go to coral.org/maui.
