Hundreds of individuals and families received much-needed food this week through a grass-roots Puna effort.
Volunteers from Bodacious Ladies of Puna have helped area residents since before 2014’s Hurricane/Tropical Storm Iselle. But their effort is on pause until more food or money is donated.
Volunteer Marc Pomerleau of Hawaiian Paradise Park said he’s “hoping this break will only be for a month or two, and then maybe they’ll get more funding.”
On Wednesday, volunteers packed and delivered more than 600 bags, illustrating the depth of need in the Puna region.
A bag might serve a single young worker, a couple, a small ohana or a family of up to a dozen people. Recipients include full-time workers, retirees, people with physical challenges and individuals with no permanent home.
Volunteer Kazzrie Avelin said 61 families with seven or more people in the household received bags of food last month.
Residents who work short-term jobs, do yard work and other tasks struggle to make ends meet in the Opihikao area, said volunteer Karen Pupuhi.
“They don’t have a regular paycheck, so they look forward to the food every month,” she said. Pupuhi drove about 20 miles Wednesday to get food bags to take back.
“When we get there, there’s already people waiting,” she said. “They very much appreciate it — when they’re waiting, you know they need it.”
The Bodacious Ladies partner with The Food Basket, Hawaii Island’s food bank, tracking food need by gathering data requested by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. And it’s The Food Basket that takes donations earmarked for the Bodacious Ladies.
They volunteer under the auspices of the Youth Business Center and the Community Grassroots Project.
“They’re really incredible women,” Pomerleau said. “I’m really amazed. They’ve been doing it for so many years now; bodacious, bold and audacious — and that’s what they are. They’re really just remarkable women.”
Volunteers gather monthly at the Nanawale Long House with stacks of food, bought with donated money. It’s arranged on the stage and volunteers stream in to pack bags, which also are donations.
Volunteers show up in cars, trucks and vans to get the bags and distribute to individual subdivisions.
The goal, said Ronnette Gonsalves, is to partner with individual subdivisions until they can become independent and pack and distribute their own food supplies. That happened recently with two subdivisions going independent.
Gonsalves, who founded a women’s group that evolved into the Bodacious Ladies, said grant funding paid for production of an informational packet.
The packet describes how to set up and maintain a successful food distribution system and is available for subdivisions and communities to request.
Once multiple subdivisions get their filled bags in Nanawale, volunteers prepare for organized chaos as Nanawale residents visit in person to get their monthly allotment.
“A lot of them that come through the lines are working-class citizens,” Gonsalves said.
The Bodacious Ladies partnered with the Red Cross and Matson after Iselle to obtain four Matson containers to safely store food, setting up the possibility that, when future disasters occur, staging areas with pre-stocked food will be available.
There’s a secured Matson container in Kapoho, one in Hawaiian Beaches and two in Nanawale.
Food also gets delivered to veterans who have served in various wars.
Paul Wheelers, commander of Disabled American Veterans Post 9 in Puna, said he expected to drive about 140 miles Wednesday, delivering food from the Bodacious Ladies to 14 veterans and their dependents.
“They’re disabled veterans, families, spouses, things like that,” he said. “They’re (formerly) homeless, in need, that kind of thing. So I go to these houses, no matter what subdivision they’re in.”
His post serves veterans from the Volcano all the way to the edge of Hilo.
The Bodacious Ladies are particularly adept at crisis and disaster response.
For example, 48 bags of food were delivered Wednesday to workers from Luquin’s Mexican Restaurant, which was destroyed by fire. Some of them have families, but most are single adults living on their own — and they were dependent upon their Luquin’s paychecks.
But the help could be a one-time deal, not only for Luquin’s employees but people throughout the Puna region who receive help of extra food each month.
“Our shelves are really empty. Today is our last distribution until I can get more funding,” Gonsalves said.
Reach Jeff Hansel at jhansel@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
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How to help:
• Donate money in care of the Bodacious Ladies to The Food Basket, Hawaii Island’s food bank; 933-6030 (if you don’t direct it to the Bodacious Ladies, it will go into the general fund).
• Ask The Food Basket how to donate fresh bananas, taro and other extra fruits, vegetables and herbs to the Bodacious Ladies.
• Offer to volunteer.
• Donate seeds, young garden plants, fruit tree starts, young coconut trees, nut trees, fertilizer, planting materials or tools so families can grow their food at home.
• Offer to create a certified kitchen at the Nanawale Long House for use during disasters.
• Donate a functioning pallet jack.
• Offer your service organization’s information in Nanawale to people in need on food-distribution day.
• Donate services from your company during the food-distribution day.
(Source: Bodacious Ladies volunteers)
