KCC partners with Hawaiʻi Food Bank to offer a food pantry at KCC every Thursday. (Photo by Sarah Burchard)
By Sarah Burchard | Staff Writer
It’s 1 p.m. on a Wednesday, which means there are around six students in the back room of the Kikaha o Laeʻahi Center in ʻIliahi unpacking dozens of boxes of food for Thursday’s community food pantry. Student support specialist Colette “Coco” Andrade-Fujii organizes the weekly event. For the first food pantry of the semester on Sept. 12, she picked up over 3,000 pounds of food from Hawaiʻi Food Bank, packing two large vans full.
Food insecurity among students has become a reality illuminated by the COVID-19 pandemic and exacerbated by the rising cost of food. The Hawaiʻi Food Bank found, with a study it commissioned last year called “The State of Food Insecurity in Hawai‘i,” that 44% of college students don’t have enough to eat, and Hawaiʻi Food Bank’s annual report reported last year that grocery prices in Hawaiʻi have gone up 25% in the last three years.
To support students, Kapiʻolani Community College (KCC) has partnered with Hawaiʻi Food Bank and Waikīkī Community Center to offer a student snack shop and weekly community food pantry at no cost with zero application requirements. The Pohukaina Food Pantry is open during fall and spring semesters every Thursday 2-5 p.m. (except on holidays). To sign up, you can register here or scan the QR codes located at the front door of the Kikaha o Laeʻahi Center and on campus TV monitors. If you forget to sign up in advance, you can do it at the door when you arrive.
“We know that basic needs in a college setting is huge,” Andrade-Fujii said. “Students are coming from all over the world. Some of them don’t have anybody here. How can we make them feel at home … We know that they’re hungry. How can we help that?”
Concerns about students getting enough food arose in 2016 when director of Lunalilo Scholars Program LaVache Scanlan and Andrade-Fujii noticed the scholars were not eating. Wanting to ensure the scholars had the brain power they needed to retain information and excel at their studies, Scanlan and Andrade-Fujii began efforts to bring a food pantry – a site that distributes food and goods to those in need who reside in a specified area – to KCC.
Andrade-Fujii said it took four years to get Pohukaina Food Pantry up and running. The first pantry opened in January 2020 only to be hit by the pandemic two months later. Undeterred, she helped organize weekly drive-through food pick-ups in the KCC parking lot until the school reopened and they could move operations back inside.
Food and other household items like toilet paper mostly come from Hawai’i Food Bank. Aloha Harvest, a 501(3)(c) nonprofit organization that rescues food waste to distribute to people in need, drops food off to the pantry on the second and fourth Thursday of each month. On these days, people have an additional selection of items to choose from.
Food items are mostly non-perishable ranging from canned vegetables to tomato sauce and grab-and-go snacks such as Triscuit crackers, Chex Mix and almonds. Frozen foods like pizza, hot dogs and meat and fresh produce are also available on occasion. (Photo by Sarah Burchard)
“It’s a real nice feeling when you see your community come out,” Andrade-Fujii said. “And you know, [there’s] no judgment.”
Andrade-Fujii said she has served everyone from the person who arrived in a fancy car to a houseless person off the street. Everyone is welcome, they just have to register at the door.
The snack shop came about when Student Congress was fighting to open a store on campus. Andrade-Fujii suggested they open a snack shop inside the Pohukaina Food Pantry instead of starting a business. The students would avoid having to attain special permits and insurance while simultaneously luring students who felt a stigma toward the pantry in with free snacks. All students have to do is register once using the QR code located at the front door of the Kikaha o Laeʻahi Center or on campus TV monitors and they’ll receive a $10 voucher to use in the shop every week, Monday through Wednesday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
“Coming through my snack shop is a way for [students] to come and secretly go shopping for the pantry without their friends knowing,” Andrade-Fujii said.
KCC also partnered with Aloha Diaper Bank. With this program, KCC students, who are parents, can submit their information and schedule a pick-up for up to 50 diapers at a time.
The Kikaha o Laeʻahi Center, where the pantry and snack shop are located, is a refuge for students. Here, students can find computers to use, hot coffee and even blankets if they are cold. There is a microwave, sink, hot water and dishes and cups available, so they can eat while they study. Andrade-Fujii gives full credit to Scanlan for her vision and to her peers and student workers for helping her maintain all the center’s offerings.
“We’re just trying to help everybody out,” she said. “But just having the students, here my heart is full. My heart is really really full, and I know I’m keeping them here. I’m keeping them in college one step toward their goal.”
Pohukaina Food Pantry
Walk-in shopping & snack shop for KCC Students
Hours: Monday through Wednesday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Registration link: https://go.hawaii.edu/yBv
Community weekly shopping (open to the public)
Hours: Thursdays 2-5 p.m.
Aloha Harvest Deliveries: Every 2nd & 4th Thursday
Registration link: http://go.hawaii.edu/3Ss
Location:
Kīkaha o Laeʻahi Center, ʻIliahi Building, Room 231
4303 Diamond Head Rd. Honolulu, HI 96816
Parking available in lower Lot B
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