Sharing a meal

KAILUA-KONA — The area’s neediest and the volunteers who help feed them sat down Wednesday night to share a Thanksgiving turkey dinner with all the fixings.

Every week, local groups open the doors of Kealakehe Intermediate School’s cafeteria, welcoming in those who might otherwise go hungry that night for a meal as part of the Kona Task Force on Feeding the Hungry.

Coordinator Ardie Ikeda said this year alone the program has served 225,000 meals. The task force first began providing meals in 1993, he said.

“If there is one child or one person that was not gonna be fed … and we were able to provide that meal, then we’ve done our job,” he said.

The program was originally designed to serve single-parent families in the area, Ikeda said, but it’s since grown beyond that.

“At any given time, any one of us might be destitute or homeless,” he said.

Every week, one of the task force’s partner organizations provides setup for the meal, a main dish, service and clean-up, opening up the cafeteria to anybody looking for a meal.

Thanksgiving is a little different.

At a time dedicated to gratitude, the task force invites all its volunteers to come together and sit at the same table with those they serve, coming together as a community.

“I think the special thing is we want all of our volunteers to join us and get together,” he said.

And get together they did. Volunteers and guests alike packed the Kealakehe Intermediate School cafeteria to share a full Thanksgiving turkey dinner.

Ikeda said they prepared 33 turkeys for the dinner, which he estimated to be about 450 pounds of bird.

On a typical week, he said, they can expect an average of 150 people. Wednesday night, they were expecting 400.

Ikeda stressed the importance of celebrating their volunteers.

“This program is all about the volunteers,” he said. “Whatever volunteers we get are the ones that make up our community.”

Among those volunteers were the Cub Scouts of Pack 15.

“We’ve been doing this for I don’t know how many years,” said Cubmaster Gordon Ogi.

Ogi said seven of the pack’s members came out to help during the event. For many of them, it was their first time volunteering at the event.

“It’s good for the boys,” Ogi said. “It’s all a part of community service.”

Scouting, he said, teaches strong values and volunteering reinforces that.

“It gets them used to giving back,” he said. “This is a way they learn to give.”

It also seemed to be something the kids enjoyed.

“You can see on their faces it actually feels good,” Ogi said. “They’re enjoying themselves and building character at the same time.”

Ikeda said getting youth involved in volunteer efforts is an important part of keeping the program going.

“I think we need to have the youth involved in community service,” he said.

People have moved away from volunteerism, he said, so it’s necessary to get youth organizations like scouting groups and the JROTC involved.

“That’s how they’re gonna grow and develop,” he said. “Without volunteerism, you don’t have that sense of helping, sense of giving.”