WAIKOLOA — Each October, Global Month of Service allows Hilton Grand Vacations, Waikoloa Resorts employees to take their hospitality skills into the community and make a positive impact in their neighborhoods.
The organization identifies hunger as a continual social problem. To contribute to the solution, a property-wide program was developed to give HGVC guests the option of donating left-over, non-perishable food items upon check-out. In addition to this continual effort, a food drive was held during the first two weeks of October, raising an estimated 1,000 pounds of food for The Food Basket, Hawaii Island’s Food Bank. The island-wide supplemental food network collects and distributes nutritious, high-quality food to low-income households, the working poor, the disabled, the ill, senior citizens and children of Hawaii County.
The Food Bank’s West Hawaii warehouse was moved from Honalo to the Kaloko area at Ulu Wini on Oct. 12 with the help of 31 HGVC employees. Led by General Manager Rob Gunthner, they spent half a day in Honalo, helping to scrub commercial refrigerators; clean office space that will be turned into the SNAP outreach center; sort and pack food items to be moved; bag food items to be distributed as part of the Stamp Out Hunger campaign; and load pallets into two large trailers. HGVC team members also assisted in preparing the new location for all the good work that will be done there.
Office space was set up and donations of furniture, file cabinets, computer screens and other items will soon be delivered.