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Jeremiah Baca volunteers at community work day
Maui’s homeless resource center, Ka Hale A Ke Ola, has really been feeling the love lately from the community. It started in June, when Steve Blinder and the staff of Maui Fire and Flood decided to make dinner for 75 folks at the shelter. Then more recently the community came together to build an edible and native garden at the shelter’s five-acre Wailuku property. It was a project organized by Community Work Day in conjunction with the Centers for Disease Control’s Communities Putting Prevention to Work (CPPW) initiative. [CPPW on Facebook]
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As far as the dinner was concerned, the crew of Maui Fire and Flood (a water and fire damage restoration company also operates a retail store called Cleaner’s Warehouse) made a nice spread of baked chicken, ham, mashed potatoes, vegetable medley, rice, salad, dinner rolls, fresh fruit and an assortment of cakes. The KP team consisted of Steve and Michelle Blinder, David Heard, Nick Soto, Kevin and Anthony Fiori, Nalani Cagasan and Kathi Pierceall.
“We were asked to feed 50 people and nearly 75 showed up,” said David Heard, Director of Marketing for Maui Fire and Flood. “It was awesome! The second to last person on line got the last scoop of rice and the last person on line didn’t want rice. It was a chance for our staff to get together outside of work. It was a great time and we encourage other businesses to do it, too.”
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Matt Lane, Community Work Day, Paul Hunting, CDC, Dr.Lorrin Pang, DOH.
Since Ka Hale A Ke Ola services over 75,077 meals annually for Maui, building an edible garden seemed like a no brainer for the center. Community Work Day, along with the County of Maui Water Department, the Maui School Garden Network and more than 60 volunteers showed up, worked tirelessly on Friday to lay the foundation, irrigation, fencing and plant 200 natives and 40 fruit trees. Maluhia Trucking donated many hours of trucking and backhoe work to the site. EKO Compost was also a major contributor of compost. Vince Mina from Maui BioChar donated locally sourced soil amendments, IMOs and Bio-char. Alex Beers (owner of From the Heart Garden Service) also donated compost which made fruit tree planting possible. And Mini-mix Hawaii, Valley Isle Fencing, Voluntourism and Holon helped out as well. Whole Foods Market came through and fed volunteers during the day with healthy snacks and locally grown fruit.
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“You wouldn’t believe it but our biggest hurdle is getting soil donated,” said Matt Lane of Community Work Day. “We did some great work at Ka Hale A Ke Ola but that is just the beginning. There will be lots more volunteer and donation opportunities for the Maui community to participate in.”
The resource center’s vision for the garden is not only to grow food that can feed the residents of Ka Hale a Ke Ola but also to teach new skills to the residents that could open doors to new job opportunities. They also plan to green the courtyard where Christmas parties and the cafeteria are located as well as the area around the children’s center.
more at http://agreenermaui.blogspot.com/
