KAILUA-KONA — ‘Twas a couple weeks before Christmas, when all through The Food Basket warehouse, there were too few volunteers sorting, to get all that food out.
With shelves flush with food donated by those in the community who care, the Kona warehouse is in need of elves with some time to spare.
“Thank goodness for everyone in our community knowing our situation before, but now we are overstocked with canned goods,” said Kona warehouse manager Marshall Akamu. “Goods come in every day from stores and we are over-run with everything.”
Now, having a lot of food on hand normally wouldn’t be a bad situation this time of year, as it’s usually the other way around.
But, without enough hands, staff and current volunteers in Kona are having trouble keeping up sorting and categorizing the items that will be distributed to thousands in need by the nonprofit’s 100 partner agencies.
“It’s really hard, but we been making things happen,” said Akamu, who oversees four staff; one of whom is full-time. “As far as our daily operations, we need a steady stream of volunteers to help us out.
“It’s what we depend on right now.”
The need for volunteers in Hilo and Kona has been compounded in recent months by restructuring and reorganization that’s resulted in staffing changes at the Hilo and Kona warehouse and administrative office in Hilo.
The Food Basket Interim Executive Director Kristin Frost Albrecht said no staff was let go, but rather that there were some changes of positions from full-time to part-time status, blending of positions and natural attrition, including within the organization’s leadership. For example, she said, her former position as director of grants and compliance was not filled after she assumed the position in September upon En Young’s resignation.
“We have restructured The Food Basket, we are trying to be more efficient with what we have,” said Albrecht, who also noted the island’s lone food bank is donor-funded and at times during the years runs on a deficit budget. “There are a little less staff, but a lot of what we do, volunteers help us with.”
Over the course of a year, there are more than 1,000 volunteers who give their time to the nonprofit that serves 13,649 unduplicated individuals per month, almost 14 percent more than in 2016.
“They provide such a service to us, and to the community as whole,” Albrecht said.
Volunteers are needed most for sorting goods, primarily canned goods, to make sure the items are, first, good for consumption and then to categorize them by type (protein, for example) for distribution.
Hours are flexible, and a volunteer doesn’t have to commit to a lengthy shift. If they have a couple of hours here and there, it helps, said Akamu. Volunteers must be at least 16 years old.
“Anything would help because we cannot do it on our own,” he said. “We depend on the community, you know what I mean?”
For more information and a volunteer application, or to contribute monetarily, visit www.hawaiifoodbasket.org/donate or call 933-6030. Applications are submitted to the Hilo office, and then forwarded to the Kona office.