 Maikako everyone, and welcome to Hawaii Together on the Think Tech Hawaii Broadcast Network. I'm your host, Kelea Akina, and although we're in the midst of a very dark time, the coronavirus crisis, there is a silver lining, and you know what that is? People are rising up to their very best. Aloha is being spread across the islands, as well as Malama, the act of caring for one another, and there's no better example, I think, than an organization that's brand new, called Malama Meals. I'm just so delighted that during this time I've been able to volunteer and help them out a bit, and I'm their fan, actually, I'm not the one doing the work today, you're going to be meeting a couple of people who are doing great things. One of them is the founder, or one of the founders, one of the businessmen who actually has put this program together, and another one is a volunteer on the island of Kauai, and what they're doing is feeding people, not just feeding people food during this time, but feeding people in the heart as well, feeding hearts and souls together, bringing the community together to do something good for individuals who can't get out of their homes and who can't cook for themselves, but need food, and that's precisely what Malama Meals does here in the state of Hawaii. I've been amazed at the growth of the program from a few meals a day going out in time of need to thousands and thousands now, more than 10,000 a day, and we're going to hear about their goals of reaching the goal of 100,000 meals. Isn't that something? But first, let me introduce my guests to you. I'd like you to meet a dear friend of many, many years. His name is Ahmad Ramadan. I met him when I was falling in love with his milkshakes that he made in the Moeweewee area and distributed through a food truck at the University of Hawaii, and I've watched his business grow since then into a tremendous organization that services the needs of so many people for wonderful, healthy food. I'd like you to welcome to the program Ahmad Ramadan. Ramadan, Ahmad, thank you for being with us today. Loha, thank you so much, Kelegi, for having us. We are very excited to speak with you and thank you for all of your help and wisdom throughout the years. It has really helped us to prosper and we really appreciate all of your support. Lamomile started just through the need of helping people and we hope to continue doing it for as long as we can. Well, you're doing a great job and I think a lot of people know you through your stores, the spot. In fact, I hope I say it correctly. My pigeon isn't all that good. My other guest today is Kameh Loha Smith. He's been a friend who's kept me aware of the comings and goings of people and the things taking place on the island of Kauai where he is a wonderful activist taking care of people. I think he's one of the best community leaders I know here in the state of Hawaii. He's got a big heart and he loves people. And the thing we talk about almost all the time is the needs of the people on the island of Kauai. Kameh Loha vacillates between being heartbroken and being utterly inspired as he sees great results. But his heart is really for the people of Kauai. Kameh Loha, welcome to the program. So glad you're here with us today. And you're here in your volunteer capacity as the Kauai Island Coordinator for Malama Meals. Yes, volunteering, trying to bring people together. But most importantly, trying to feed people who are hungry. There's so many people in need at this time. A lot of people are sheltered in police at the beaches, in the parks, in their cars and other places in the natural environment. And they don't necessarily have the means by which to travel to different distribution centers or cities or towns that are connected to some of the other places where there's food. So it's an opportunity and it's also a very humbling thing to be able to bring joy to people who are in need and who are so grateful for a hot meal each day. So I didn't realize how important being able to have a hot meal, you know, the impact of that on people's temperament, on their emotional and spiritual well-being. And I'm learning so much about food and I'm learning about how important it is and the role that it plays in bringing people together and so I'm so grateful for the opportunity to serve and to volunteer and to work with Ahmad and Uncle Michael here to help people in our community. Very well put, Kamiloha, very well put and I appreciate that. I know that when Ahmad and I were talking about the program in the early days, Ahmad shared the vision of expanding beyond Oahu to the neighbor islands. And I couldn't think of anyone more suitable than you so I got on the phone with you and from the beginning of learning about Malama meals, your heart was so open and you poured so much into it and now we're seeing it take off. In fact, we're sitting right now, you're sitting right there on the island of Kauai and this is just exciting to see that we're in the midst of distributing today about 1,500 meals on the island. And now I want to thank you for bringing another gentleman because Malama meals couldn't happen unless there were leaders in the community and businessmen and women who actually are standing behind the program. And so I welcome to the program, in fact, this is the first time we're meeting together, Mr. Michael Sheehan. Michael, thanks for stopping by and joining us today. Thank you, Khalid, my pleasure. It's wonderful to be able to work with these wonderful gentlemen that I'm sitting next to and yourself over there on the other side of the pond over there in Honolulu. We all have a common goal in mind, which is to try and help some of the less fortunate people, particularly those that have been so sadly impacted by this COVID virus. Well, thank you for all you do, all three of you. And you are now situated at Passion Bakery Cafe out there in Kini Popo on the Kini Popo, I don't know what they call it. Michael, you know what they call it? Freeway or highway? It's a shopping center. Shopping center, there you go. And I've got to get out there and visit you once I can do that. But let me go to Ahmad first. Ahmad, tell me a little bit about how Malama meals got started. I know that you and a couple of other businessmen I know who run restaurants really were impacted yourselves first when the coronavirus crisis came, but your thoughts went beyond your own businesses. They went into how you as restaurant owners could help people in need of food. Tell us a bit about how the origins came about for Malama meals. Well, Malama meals started basically with the fact that Kapuna were not able to leave the house because they were most susceptible to COVID-19 and we wanted to create a safe environment and a safe way in where we could still take care of our Kapuna and all the people around them and provide meals in a way that would sustain and keep our Kapuna safe. So I actually spoke to a friend of mine, his name's Steve Sanbrero. Right. And I called him and I said, hey, we should try and figure out a way where we can help our Kapuna. He gave a call out to the mayor called well and they did a press conference and we started providing meals to the most susceptible which is our Kapuna through low income housing and senior facilities throughout the island which consisted around about 1,000 to 1,500 meals. It was a very happy moment for us because we knew that we could help a lot of people in dire need and we could make an impact with what we knew how to do well. And so that's kind of how we started Malama meals. That's right. And it's spread to other businesses, Gilbert Sakaguchi. Yes, Blue Water Shrimp, Gilbert Sakaguchi and also Anne Morton. Anne Morton, yes. He's handling all of our IT and everything behind the back inside and helping to also organize us when it comes to where things need to go and timing. And so it's all of us I think put together, made a great team in getting the efficiency and coordination down in how Malama meals was structured together. Now Malama meals has had an extraordinary history since it started less than three months ago. You began distributing meals out to a small number of groups and it has spread all over Oahu now on Kauai and on some of the neighbor islands were starting up as well. Ahmad, give me some of the figures right now in terms of how many meals are distributed every day across the state of Hawaii and how many people are being serviced already? So on Oahu we are currently serving about 10,000 meals every single day, seven days a week throughout the day, morning to late afternoon. We have a great team that is working from 3 a.m. all the way up to 9 p.m. seven days a week. And we are also now servicing Kauai and have been working with Kami'aloha very closely in getting the meals out in the afternoon time. Well, that's incredible. And the whole process is just a tremendous work in terms of looking at the people who are involved. Now what I understand is that while the restaurants themselves that we mentioned are responsible for the production of the food and its distribution on the islands and throughout the island of Oahu is carried out by a huge, huge network of volunteer organizations. What kinds of groups are working with you, Ahmad? So currently we have Catholic Charities which has been amazing in helping to deliver meals to all the different facilities that they have their kupuna in. We also have Kanu Hawaii which has provided us many volunteers on a daily basis to help in the deliveries and our own team as well from Alama Meals. That's something. And there are many other volunteer organizations and faith-based groups and others as well who are helping. Kami'aloha, on Kauai, there are a tremendous number of needs that have to be met. And can you tell us a little bit about what the people have been facing? I know that you and I have talked a lot about what Kauai residents have faced because of the natural disasters that have hit over the last couple of years. And now on top of the floods, we've got the coronavirus situation. Let our viewers know a little bit about the things that are really on your heart. Well, my involvement really started with the floods in 2018 when most of the island was devastated and inundated with water and floods. And there were people who were cut off from the ability to go to places to get food. So since that time, I've been working with a very small community out in Wainihap, which is where my grandparents are from and trying to help them to put together a flood mitigation plan. And it just so happened in the middle of all of our planning efforts, then two more floods came and then we also had to deal with the CB-19. So the whole idea behind the plan was to deal with this issue of food sovereignty. So how are we gonna get food to people that are cut off from the rest of the island, the stores and everything? So that's where we came up with the food distributions to the specific, to those areas that are in these geographically isolated areas. And they happen to be Hawaiian community, but not everybody I work with there is necessarily Hawaiian. But the core members were Hawaiian and so I worked with them to put together a plan. It wasn't just for food, but it was also how to get online education out to people in places where the internet is funny kind. It's intermittent and it's sparse and it doesn't run very good. And the third thing is, how do we do, how do we provide some well-being or how do you say it like welfare checks on components? So we were just doing it and really the issue was there wasn't enough money that people had in their hands for food. So we had to come up with a way to address that issue in the community and between what we were doing and all of the planning that Malama Mills came in and that helped to supplement our efforts there. So it really did start with something that just was totally different and Malama Mills just happened to be a solution. And that's what we see happening in other parts of the island as well. There's a lot of people who are more newly homeless or houseless and so a lot of that stem from the floods from 2018, 2020 and then with the CV-19 then it created more challenges. Very good. In fact- We're not connected to services and it's not their fault. In fact, Kamie Aloha, one of the things I love about what you said is that you and others were already coordinating a community effort to meet the needs of the people. You were in place and long after the coronavirus crisis has gone you will remain in place. Malama Mills isn't setting up any separate structure or any organization to replace that. It just comes in to help alongside and provide something that the need is great for right now which is the meal packages themselves. Before I ask Mr. Sheehan a question about how businesses can be involved I wanted to go back to Ahmad for a moment. Tell us a little bit about the actual production. I mean, how does this operation take place that is now serving over 10,000 meals a day flying them out to different islands going to over a hundred locations on Oahu alone? I mean, what's involved in terms of actually creating the food packages, getting them distributed and making sure that we're safe during this coronavirus period. That's a very good question and it's actually a very strenuous and difficult task that we feel that we have done are very best in doing so. And so how it works is for security measures, anybody coming into the kitchen would have to make sure that they're not sick. They have to come in with masks, gloves, hats and follow the necessary protocol as far as the entrance of our kitchen. Second, as far as supplies and inventory because we were already in the restaurant business we have a lot of different sources and so we were able to kind of team up with a lot of different businesses on Oahu to be able to source all the needs that we needed and come up with a way in where it would be sustainable in the long-term processes. As far as a team, it's a great effort amongst many people. Ako my wife has been the glue behind it all. She coordinates with everybody as far as where the deliveries go the total amount of meals that needs to go to each building and creating the packages the day before in accordance to what our plan is moving forward and not to limit anybody else's extreme help, Dan, Steve, Gilbert, Gilbert's team, my team, Camilo, Mike, everybody has really been putting effortless hours and very little sleep and making sure that we accommodate and do our utmost to make sure that people can get the sustenance that they need provided each and every day. Excellent, and it is quite an operation involving a huge number of volunteers involved in many things from food production to delivery to IT. You've got a fantastic website up that helps people order and so forth. In fact, what is that website? Because I want to make sure that people go and visit it. It's a very simple URL. malamameals.org Yeah, malamameals.org, that's right. Michael, you are an established businessman, philanthropist, community leader. What attracted you to Malama Meals and how can other businesses get involved in supporting it? Well, it sort of was a natural flow through from what we were trying to do to improve the life of the people on the island of Hawaii that were more drastically suffering the after effects of the 2018 flooding there. So when this opportunity came forward just to try and help make the lives of the people that have been so negatively impacted for so many years, one flood after another, it seems like my son, Keola says he thinks it's been raining for three years straight here on Kauai, almost without end. The temperament of the people were, they were quite depressed as a matter of fact. It's PTSD, post traumatic stress syndrome, whatever it is. I don't know how it actually went psychologically, but people were down and I figured that just every little bit of help might boost people's morale and sense of well-being and so having people knowing that there's somebody out there going out of their way to provide them with a meal, a nice hot meal every day. It's amazing how it lifted so many people's spirits and so many of the homeless people that made it a lot to them. Well, that's great. That's really great to hear. And I want to thank you for all of your support. Kalia Loha, back to you just really briefly because we'll have to break very soon. You said something that really touched my heart once and it was in our conversation in the early days of getting Kauahi up and running. You talked about what a hot meal does and you talked about it doing far more than simply providing nutrients to the body. You want to share those comments with our viewers? What have you seen a hot meal do to people? Well, you know, a hot meal, it really brings not just a level of comfort from a physical point of view, but also an emotional point of view, also emotional well-being, spiritual well-being. And then you figure if you're going out and you're distributing meals, I mean, it's such an authentic relationship and you're being able to give people a level of comfort and reassurance that they didn't have. At least there is something that is consistent about what's going on in their life. You may not be able to depend on government checks, different processes that are in the works, but at the very least you have the ability to have that hot meal once you tell me you can sleep better, you know? And something about it is just it's changing the way that people are dealing with the stress level on Kauahi in our case with the floods and all that devastation as well as with the limitations imposed upon us because of CV-19. So a meal could do so much for a person. But what do you do then? That's right. It's really part of the whole process of Ma'alama, of really showing care and love and aloha. Now, Ahmad, where do we go from here with the explosive growth? You're not sitting back on your laurels saying we've arrived. You have some big goals in mind for Ma'alama meals. What's that? So we would like to help create a system or put something in place for all the islands of Kauahi that would create security measures and a safe net for everyone and anyone that is in need of help. So we hope to soon start serving meals also in Molokahi and I know that there are some people that may be in need over there and sort of working closely with them in regards to that and we hope that we can actually reach a number of 100,000 meals per day, servicing maybe about 10% of all the island's people. That is terrific and I love your ambition that you're bringing to this program. A real strong entrepreneurship. An important question is how does the community get involved with Ma'alama meals? And one question in particular, Ahmad, is if individuals want to help contribute financially, are you receiving contributions and where should they go to the website? Yes, we have received many contributions from many individuals on the website malama meals.org. There is a GoFundMe on there and we have received over $40,000 in donation which is absolutely amazing. We have also received some larger amounts from different organizations throughout the island of Ma'alama and it's amazing what everybody is doing in helping us and because it's been growing so large, we would hope that many more people can help us to continue this blessing of being able to provide people hot meals throughout all the islands and we really appreciate everything that everyone is doing for us. Well, that's terrific and I just wanna repeat that, that everyone I think should go to malamameals.org just to learn about what's taking place and to contribute if you really can. I wanna thank my guests for being with us today. This is a terrific program and I have to let them get back to work because there they are at the Kini Popo Shopping Center, one of 10 locations today from which 1500 meals are being distributed across the island of Kauai and I'm gonna have them back again and probably by then the numbers will be much larger and this is just a tremendous work taking place statewide. So Ahmad, thank you for being with us today. I appreciate all the work you're doing. Kame aloha, much aloha to you. Thank you for being here. Michael, glad you were with us today. To all of my viewers, this is Keli'i Akina for Hawaii Together on the Think Tech Hawaii broadcast network. Let's remember during this time of coronavirus crisis that it's temporary, it will pass but what we do with each other to show care and aloha and malama one another will last for eternity and that's what I wish for you and for all of us who are reaching out. God bless you and until next week, aloha.