 Aloha and welcome to Ehana Kako, we're here every week on the Think Tech Hawaii Broadcast Network. I'm Keely E. Akina, president of the Grassroots Institute, where we like to say, Ehana Kako, and that means let's work together. In fact, there can be nothing more valuable here in beautiful paradise, especially for those people in paradise who don't experience as much of it as they should. Many of us take for granted that we can have three meals a day and that we can send our children off to school with full bellies and they'll come back and they'll have a dinner. But the reality is a growing segment of our population can't make that assumption. They don't necessarily know where the next meal is and that could lead them into a cavalcade that results in becoming homeless and other problems that ultimately not only are harmful to them and their children, but to all of society. And that's why I'm so delighted today to have two gentlemen with me who are doing something about it. They're not saying let's sit back and let the government take care of it, although they do work with the government. They're saying let's work together with the private sector, with non-profit organizations, with charities, with faith-based groups in order to come up with a solution for an important need here in Hawaii. And that is getting enough food into our people, nutritious food, meals that will actually sustain them and keep them from becoming homeless. Today I'm delighted to be with Feeding Hawaii Together, a board member, Gil Berger, and Charlie the Rins, their executive director. And we're going to talk a bit about this problem that they're solving and I want you to pay attention all the way through the end because as viewers who care about the future of Hawaii and its people, there's something that you can do. But please welcome to the program today. Gil Berger, Gil, welcome to the program. Thank you for having us on the show. Well, I'm glad to be here. Thank you. Charlie, so glad you're here too as well. Thank you. Thank you so much for having us. Well, you're doing a great work and I want to congratulate you. But I don't think everybody knows about your work. We know about what it is to feed people who are homeless, but you're doing something that is actually very proactive. Tell us what Feeding Hawaii Together does. We're a non-profit and our focus is preventing homelessness. So we are a food pantry, but we are a food pantry unique in that we're actually a little grocery store for these people. So Charlie and his wonderful bride Diane have developed a model where these people come in and they shop. Well, how about that? That's incredible. It is. So they come in now. Do they pay for what they purchase? No, there's no charge for anything that we provide. The food comes from the food bank and the food bank does not distribute food directly to people. Some people think they do, but it's places like Feeding Hawaii Together and other food distribution points that actually are distributing the food to people. Now, I understand that you are probably one of the largest distributors of food that food bank makes available. Is that right? That is correct. Over three million pounds of food a year. And was it correct at least a couple of years ago I saw in the news that food bank had a problem finding distributors and much of the food would actually go to waste. Yes. So you're solving a couple of problems here. Absolutely. And Charlie and Diana over the years have matured this model to the point where we have in-house refrigeration and freezers. So beside the food bank, we have Aloha Harvest and a number of organizations that bring fresh food and fruits, vegetables, eggs, dairy products. So it's not just the canned staple food. That's great to hear. Yeah, it's very nutritious food they're receiving at the same time. Exactly. Now, Charlie, who is your client? Who exactly do you serve? What would tell me a little bit about the people that you provide food to? Our clients have to be in USDA standards of poverty level. And like for instance, if somebody has food stamps, they qualify. All right. Because that's an automatic qualification. And so there's a sliding scale like if a single person is shopping, they want to come in and shop and their income is less than $23,000 or so, then they can come in. We have had USDA people come in and talk to us and everything. So we told them that we do fudge a little bit. We're not like to the penny, you know what I mean? So people are close into that. And so it's $23,000 for a single person. And there's a sliding scale that goes up to a family of eight. Now a family of eight can earn a little bit very close to $80,000, $86,000. Which really doesn't go that far for a family of eight. It doesn't. It doesn't go anywhere really. Not in Hawaii, no. And a lot of these people, when we don't have the means to give them their food, they're having a dilemma whether they buy food or pay rent. That's right. Now feeding Hawaii together reaches out to well over 50,000 people. Is that, am I reading your statistics right over here? 50,000 families. 50,000 families. Yes, sir. That's incredible. So we're talking about 150,000 to 200,000 people all together possibly. Yes. That's something. You know, tell me a little bit, Charlie, about who these people are. Not statistically, but something you've learned. You and your wife, Diane, have been reaching out to them. You've been leading your staff. You see them every day. Who are they? What are they like? They're just normal people that are just not, doesn't have a nutritious meal every day. And like you hit the nail on the head when you opened up, because there's a lot of people that they come home. The kids don't get a breakfast for school. They don't have any food when they come home. And it's very challenging. And Gil was saying, talking about our relationship with Hawaii Food Bank. Well, right now, as you know, that our building is shut down. And we're seeking another building. But so right now, these people are really in dire straits. Wow. You're performing such an important service. And I hope before the program is over, you'll tell us more about where you are in terms of... the need of getting another building. But let me go back to Gil for a moment over here. Gil, you've been a businessman here in the islands for many, many years. And you've had some prominent physicians. You've worked on banks and so forth. You've seen government efforts to solve the problem of homelessness. But it sounds to me as though you're starting a step before that. You're reaching out through this organization to people before they're homeless to address a critical need of theirs before it sends them into homelessness. That's exactly it. And the passion to serve those, to prevent them from going into homelessness. And in addition to the food pantry concept that Charlie and Diane have developed, they have other services that come in and are there every day that pantry was open. They're there. They're present. Government services, partners in development, education. They have health services. So the food pantry is the primary function of feeding Hawaii together. But the other agencies understand what we do and they understand that most of these people are right on the edge. So collectively we're preventing more homelessness in Hawaii. So having a physical structure, having a premise is absolutely essential then to bringing together not only the food provided but the other services. It becomes like a community center if you will. Absolutely. It does. It comes very much like a community center. And I love the stories that Charlie can tell you more of, but one of my favorite ones is a gentleman who would be coming in to try to get food and he would be very rambunctious and sometimes use language that was not too acceptable. And one day Charlie saw him on the sidewalk and stopped and talked to him. And he eventually was encouraged to come back but conduct himself in a proper manner. And eventually completely worked through getting enough food, getting through the services he needed to no longer be homeless. Well it's wonderful to hear about the collaboration that's taking place with multiple organizations. Charlie, tell me a little bit about some of the partners that are taking advantage of what you're doing in order to provide a broader range of services than simply distributing food. Yeah, Helping Hands Hawaii comes in. We give them a table. And non-profit organizations as long as they're not charging for anything, that's what we do. And so there's Volunteer Legal Services. There's IHS. IHS comes in for employment and Helping Hands Hawaii does food stamps. That's a very intricate key to the whole thing. Because even though they can shop once a week and pick out the food that they want, they don't always get enough. And so what we're trying to do is we're trying to make sure that these people get enough food that a gainfully employed person has. And a lot of them are employed. So it's really a very important need. But so there's Volunteer Legal Services. IHS comes down with employment. And then different agencies like Blue J Cellphones, Blue J Cellphones is there and it's for free phone. So they get a free phone. They have to be in poverty level. So they're already shooting in on that when they're shopping. We already know they're in poverty level. And so they provide a phone that gives you 700 minutes. And if they use the 700 minutes, it's only talk and text. If they use the 700 minutes, the phone just shuts down within a month. And in the first of the month, they load back up again. Now, do some of these providers, these collaborators, seek you out because they know the work you're doing? Or have you gone out and looked for each one of them? No, they've actually come to us because we have we've had like up to 500 people. One day last year, we had 500 people that came through. And they have grants and they have all kinds of different things that they need to do. But the main thing that they're trying to do is to connect to people. So they have the grants and they'll connect to the people at our facilities. So they're out there and the facility that we had was under roof for the waiting time. Sometimes it's two hours of waiting time, but they know it's worth it. Well, this is interesting to me because we're trying to deal with the problem of the spread of homelessness throughout our city, our islands. And it makes it a real challenge when it comes to getting services to people. Service providers have to go far and wide in order to encounter those who are in greatest need. But it seems, Gil, that one of the advantages of having a facility is that it becomes a magnet for service providers. Almost listening to you, Charlie, the mere fact that you bring the people together is something that charities and service providers and agencies find of great value. Very much so. And why we primarily are a food pantry that distributes food to people. It's still the whole family trying to put all the things that that family needs to prevent them from becoming homeless. We're going to go to a break now, but before we do, I want you to let our viewers know something that's happened that despite the 15-year stellar record of your work that reaches out to over 50,000 families, you're facing a bit of a crisis now. What's that? Absolutely. We have a serious crisis in that we've been forced to vacate the building in which we were occupying and serving all these wonderful folks. It was sold and we were told we had to move out, which we did. So we are currently without a home. So we are pursuing a new location with a lot of energy and seeking guidance and help from anyone in the community to support us in securing a new location. Well, when we come back from our break, we're going to talk about that a bit. You're listening to Gil Berger and Charlie Lorenzo feeding Hawaii together. They're doing a terrific work along with other people. But as you heard, this work that has gone on for 15 years is facing a crisis and they desperately need a facility at which to continue carrying on their work. We'll hear more about that when we get back. I'm Kili Ikeena with the Grassroots Institute. You're watching Ehana Kopko and the Big Tech Goat. I've got the Beagle Sisters here with a healthy tip. We encourage you to enjoy the food you eat this holiday season and keep it local and healthy. Yeah. Eat the rainbow. Eat your rainbow. And if you need any produce, come to the red barn on the north shore. Aloha. My name is Justine Espiritu. This is my co-host Matthew Johnson. Every Thursday at 4 p.m. on Seantech, we host the Hawaii Food and Farmers series. We like to bring in folks from the whole realm of the local food supply and agriculture, anyone working on these issues, any organization or individual that has plans or projects. What kind of people have we had on? We've had farmers. We've had chefs. We've had people from government, larger institutions. Everyone who's working to help make Hawaii's local food system that much better. So you can see us every Thursday and join the conversation on Twitter. And we hope to see you there. Three. Welcome back to Ehana Kopko every week. Welcome to the Big Tech Hawaii Broadcast Network and I'm Kili Ikeena with the Grassroots Institute. Well, feeding Hawaii together, what could there be a greater goal for us as a people to come together, private sector, public sector as well. And this is being done by this great organization, but they're facing a problem now. What basically you've told me, Gil and Charlie, is that you no longer have a building from which to operate this fabulous work. How much space do you actually need, either one of you, in order to carry out the work? Charlie? 10,000 square feet would be really good, but we could fit in something. I hate to say six, but somewhere six or seven. So 10,000 square feet or somewhat less. Describe the kind of building and the kind of location that might be suitable to this. Industrial. Could be the industrial area? Yeah. Anywhere. Pretty much anywhere. We want to try to stay, you know, somewhere around Sand Island to Coca-Cola or something like that or Puna Puna. Would bus access be an important thing? Yes, it is. That is, you just hit the nail on the head, bus access because the senior citizens pay $15 a year to get a bus pass and that bus pass gives them bus access all year. And that's a really key point. And, but also, you know, the reason why we need such a bigger building is because we give away food, we give away appliances, we give away furniture and so many different items. You know, we've had stories that, you know, that just would blow your mind, you know, on certain things. You know, so we had, one day we got a call from a cruise ship and the cruise ship, they said that they're remodeling and they're going to bring all the bedding out and everything like that and so they wanted to donate to us. So me and my wife were on our way out when we got that call and they said that I asked them we'll do it all fit on a flat bed and they said yes. So when we came back, the guys that were doing it were bringing multiple loads and when they, yeah, but they filled up the whole loading dock which shuts us down. So we got really nervous but we just started calling the managers of the all the low income housing and it was gone in a day. So you need a substantial facility in order to receive your inventory and store it and. Yeah, we don't want to do just food. We want to give them, you know, the needs that they have. It's very important. From a business point of view, Gil, what kind of return on investment is this for the person who's investing in society? I've heard a couple of things so far. One, it's proactive. It's about keeping people from becoming homeless. So I can imagine that the cost saved there is phenomenal for the public. It is. And in addition to that, you've got the centers of distribution for other services that are taking place simply by virtue of the fact that people are coming to get the food that they want. It's a difficult thing from a for-profit perspective and a landlord today with the commercial property prices in Hawaii, it's a challenge. And that's why we're reaching out to the community as broadly as we can to hopefully find an angel investor or an angel landlord that would provide a space. But I think it's a it's an interesting thing for Hawaii to continue to pursue the concept of what's involved in what's called housing first that was developed out of Denver originally and it's been very successful there, very successful in Chicago, San Diego, and the major cities in that it takes exactly what we do with Feeding in Hawaii together and then enhances it with this housing first concept. And it's the mix of the public-private sector working together collaboratively and addressing all of the services that these homeless folks need to get them back on their feet and get them economically sustainable. It sounds as though what your organization is providing is a missing piece from the matrix that we have right now. I mean there's so much going on to address the problem of homelessness. We don't devote our resources on preventing it to the same extent, but the kind of critical intervention that you provide, the meals that are needed to continue to keep a family going and provided for can make such a big difference. How do you see this working with current governmental efforts? For example, the governor's commission now that is taking a look into homelessness solutions? I think it's a challenge for us. Their focus is on housing and I know that's one of the things that is critical quite frankly to eliminating and reducing the homeless crisis that we're facing, but I think they also need to take a much broader view and look at this housing first concept because there's more elements to it than just the housing. It's the partnership of all the nonprofits that focus on service providing and they're coordinating all of that effort. And I think once that starts to happen, I think you'll find things like feeding Hawaii together that prevent homelessness and other organizations will be successful at preventing homelessness. We'd love to see our position eliminated. We'd love to see our, yeah, if we could disappear and our need wasn't there, how wonderful that would be. That would be wonderful. But the need is here now. It is. And you've got an organization that has proven over 15 years that it has the capacity to caring for the food needs of 50,000 families and that's part of the matrix already. It would seem to me that this is a very readily available piece of the bigger puzzle that has to be solved and we should try to empower that as much as possible. Now in our homelessness community, we've seen the growth of certain segments of society, the Micronesians who have come here for example or Native Hawaiians and I could go on. Homelessness is a universal problem. Poverty is universal. But in some ways you're well suited to meet the needs of particular population groups such as Native Hawaiians as well as the general public. Do you want to address that a bit Gil? Absolutely. We keep very accurate records of the population that is using the facility and we have over 1600 Hawaiian Native Hawaiian families. We have Micronesians. We have a broad spectrum of both racial and cultural groups that are using Feeding Hawaii together. So we're nourishing that and that's an important factor, a very important factor for us. So you're not exclusive to any one particular group but you allow this to be a comfortable service in place where those who identify with their ethnic group can come and have in a sense I would guess community experience as well. Very much so. Charlie and Diana are wonderful at that. Yeah we have sometimes people will come in a single person and when they first start shopping there we want to load them up with a lot of food and get their cupboards and refrigerators and freezers all loaded up. But then you end up with sometimes some of them will come in and just get five pounds of food. So they're picking what they want. When they're doing five pounds of food they're just coming in just to be like social. You know like it's just a social thing you know they got enough food already and stuff you know. So there's so many different angles to the whole thing. One thing I would like to comment on is that the Hawaii Food Bank is having to even that the president of Hawaii Food Bank has gone on camera on this too that that the food a lot of the food is getting thrown away right now right and it's going into landfills and when you you need to take fruits and vegetables and throw it in landfills and cover with dirt it doesn't decompose it needs air to decompose and so that that's it and then it's we're a vehicle that we could you know if we have a building that we could just go and move right move right right into capturing all that food and you know that they were trying to do everything that they could do you know for us to stay open but Hawaii Food Bank you know and that's that's our main main partner but if I could do a little bit of liberty absolutely please I hope you'll let our viewers know in the last few minutes what they can do if they've heard something today that touches their heart how can they ensure the future of this very important organization yeah so so we we started out a teen challenge and then we migrated over to to the feeding Hawaii together and we saw that that importantness but right now if um where's the camera if if we if we have 2000 people giving five dollars a month you know and our website you know can can handle that where you can just say a year you can say half a year you can say three months you can say one time or whatever and then if you ever get in financial trouble then then you can you can take you know stop it and all that but but we've learned you know that in a nonprofit doing nonprofits that to have one person do the whole thing it's it's really not something you could really sink your teeth into because if that person goes away then we're we're we're shut down again but like five dollars a month 2000 people would get us a thousand worth but building can you tell us how to contact you either a website or a phone number yes feeding hawaii together dot org is is our our website and you can go right on there and it says there it is right there saving feeding Hawaii together and um and then our phone numbers my phone number is seven eight one two zero one eight and my wife's phone number is seven eight zero two seven five nine and you guys kick off any time you want well i'm going to shake your hand charlie and encourage everyone to take a look at your website and give a call in the last 30 seconds thanks again for having us charlie appealed to the general public what would you say 15 seconds find this 10 000 square feet of space and uh an angel landlord to provide that to us like yesterday