 Hi, welcome to Seymour's World at Think Tech Hawaii. What a couple of weeks it has been. Our last show with Dana Land was unbelievable. We had over 300 people giving us comments and asking where to see her. And the day after, she played at Rehab Hospital and they even knew about it, so we were very, very excited. And I thank you very much for all of your wonderful comments. The day after the show, I had to go to China and I had to work there for a week and everybody knows about the smog and how terrible it is in China. And I have to say, it was not very comfortable. Except for one thing, I didn't see any homeless people on the street. Everybody seemed to have a job. Everybody seemed to be working. I couldn't find anything regarding poor people there and that stuck in my mind. And then I came home and I was driving back from the airport and I passed by some parks here in Hawaii on the way home. And all I saw were tents, poor people, homeless people. And I said, this is horrible. So I decided that I'm going to do a show on it and I have a very good friend. I wanna introduce my guest, Stan Markle. Hi, Stan. Hi, Seymour. And I asked him to come on the show because he works for the Hawaii Food Bank. And the Hawaii Food Bank has done such an admirable job, Stan, in helping poor people in Hawaii. And I don't wanna use the poor as an adjective. I wanna use it as a section of our population. People who just don't have enough for what's going on. And Hawaii Food Bank in the nation is recognized as one of the premier sources of food for people who need it. And I'd like you to describe a little bit what the Hawaii Food Bank does. Okay, well, the Hawaii Food Bank is part of Feeding America, which is a consortium of 200 food banks across the country. And we've been in existence here for about 28 years. And we serve approximately 200 agencies who in turn provide food for the homeless. And how many pounds of food are we talking about? Well, the need is great here and it seems to be getting greater all the time, as you mentioned. This past fiscal year, which just concluded at the end of June, we brought in 14 million, 250,000 pounds of food. So over a million pounds of food a month passes through our distribution warehouse. To feed the needy, to feed the people that need. It's amazing to me when I look at everything we're talking about in the news today. And we talk about ISIS and terrorism and it's horrible. But we have to take care of the people back home. And I don't care whether you're in Montreal or New York or Los Angeles or wherever you are in the world watching this show, I want you to think about just giving some food, just giving some cans, giving some things that you never use that have been sitting in the pantry for a long time. Give them to the needy. And the Hawaii Food Bank does exactly that. It's just amazing. No, absolutely. One in five people in Hawaii receive food through our food bank. Our mission is very simple, really. We just don't think that anybody in our Ohana family in Hawaii should go hungry. It's fabulous, Dan. One of the reasons that I wanted to bring you specifically on to the Food Bank is because I want people to know that you and I are old friends. We've been together for 30 years. Our kids went to school together. And I have great admiration for you because you survived cancer that we thought was unbelievable. We thought we would not see you again. But you were back on the tennis court last week and we played together. Fortunately, I beat you. But it was a great match. And it's just testament to your strength and perseverance, Dan, that you have survived cancer. So we're really, really happy to see you back again. Thank you. Thank you, Seymour. Thank you, Seymour. I'm glad just to be playing, really. I know, I know. In one of these days, I'll be able to return that serve of yours. It's so peculiar. It's a little bit crazy. Let's get back to the Food Bank and what it does. A lot of issues have come up regarding the percentage of food, money, et cetera, et cetera, that it takes to run the organizations that we see. And I was surprised when you told me that 95% of the money raised goes directly to the cause. Absolutely, absolutely. We're a very lean and mean organization. Everybody has to wear multiple hats. I'm the director of product resourcing, which includes donations, procurement, but I also get involved in food drives. And we are here today to talk a little bit about the National Association of Letter Carriers. Well, why don't you introduce Adele? I want to introduce one of the most amazing people I've ever met, Adele Yoshio. She's with the NALC. So she's one of the hardworking letter carriers that come to your house every day to deliver the mail. And she's going to talk a little bit about a food drive that really helps us stay afloat at the Hawaii Food Bank. We have a... Go ahead. The second Saturday of every month. Go ahead, Adele, knock him dead. Adele, before you get started, you're a lady from Hawaii, obviously, and you were born and raised here? Born and raised here. And you also are a cancer survivor, I understand. Wow, so I'm in the presence of two people who really have done something extraordinary. And you both noticed before you get started that you give more now because of your survival, that you decide that your legacy is not just to do the best that you can for yourself, but to give back to others? Absolutely, absolutely. I've had a clearer sense of life now and helping people. So I am just so fortunate to work for the United States Postal Service and we always emphasize that we do more than just deliver the mail. So events like this, like the Hawaii Food Drive, I mean, the Food Bank and then you'll see Letter Carrier's Food Drive is, I am so passionate about it. So what is it? How do you get involved in the, or the postal you get involved in the food drive? So as I mentioned before, the public know we do more than deliver the mail. So I've been a coordinator for over 10 years. And it's a one-day drive. Think about this now. In one day, we collect more food than any other organization in the world. Last year alone in the state of Hawaii, over 526,000 pounds of food was just collected in Hawaii. Nationwide, over 70 million pounds of food was collected. In one day. In one day. So in Little Hawaii, for those of you who understand a lot about how small Hawaii is, we collected 526,000 pounds. Yes. That is absolutely incredible. And that's on, we're actually showing a little bit of it. Oh, I love it. Wow. Is that you? Look at that. See the blue bags? Yes. When we got the blue bags, our numbers actually doubled. We used to collect about two to 300,000 pounds of food. That year, that picture was taken over, almost close to 600,000. This is my family. Oh, wow. We reached out to the community. My family comes out every single year to help out people from the neighborhood, schools, and organizations. We help them. I always say win, win. They come out to volunteer, and that's where we have giving back to the Hawaii food bag. And in turn, we give them letters of recommendation. Wow. So how do you do it? How do you, how do the people know what's going to happen? We go and send those blue bags and put it in their mailboxes. So these can we show them? Yes. Simple, simple, simple. Put it up. They're amazing. We put this bag in their mailboxes. We have a reminder card, and we tell them, very simple, fill the bag, leave it in your mailbox, or I always say, better yet, give it to your letter carrier. Cause nowadays people just don't want to give what's in the bag. They buy cases of Vienna sausage and spam. So I said, give it to your letter carrier. And what's even more exciting is that, you know, I met a vegetarian. She's my doctor, amazing woman, Dr. Mitzi Gold. She doesn't have cangos in her cupboard. But she goes, I would absolutely like to write a check. And so we have that option too. You guys can write a check to the Hawaii Food Bank and the NALC letter carriers get credit for that. You know, you must be so proud. I mean, we could tell how exuberant you are about what you're doing, but you must be so proud of it because it does so much for the people. Do you have direct connection while you're doing your work as a letter carrier with people who do need food? Oh, absolutely. In fact, the area that I deliver in, I don't like to use this word, but it's a little, they call it the ghetto, but it's, we have a lot of homeless people. And so I've been able to direct them. I said, you know, stop asking me for money. I said, I can give you help. And I said, I have an organization that can help you. I'm referring them to the Hawaii Food Bank. And they'll come back and say, thank you Adele. I was able to eat, you know. And what really hit home for me was my, my brother became homeless. And I've been giving back, you know, through the NLC food drive and not really hitting home until he, the organizations here in Hawaii put him in a shelter and the Hawaii Food Bank was able to feed him. And he's back on his feet again now. He has a job doing well. And that even made me more passionate about volunteering for the event. I think the idea of the Postal Carrier Union, it's a union, it's everybody, right? Across the nation, it doesn't. It's such a wonderful thing to do because you help so many people. I think some people, since then, maybe you can explain it a little bit. They don't realize it's not just about giving food to people to eat. It's about what happens to these people if they don't have food. You know, they go steal. There's crime involved. Well, I mean, how do you guys help when it comes to making sure that the people actually get the food all the time? Do you have a direct system of delivery? Well, we distribute the food through agencies who are 501C nonprofits like us. So many of them are faith-based, like churches, and people register with the church and they receive food at the church. They have pantries, just like little stores they'll have in their churches or in their agencies. And people will come in and receive food there. We don't have people in need actually coming to our warehouse. We only deal with other nonprofits. And how many agencies are there? So there's almost 200 agencies. 200 agencies that actually distribute food to their members or their people they know to make sure that they don't go hungry. Right, so we serve 287,000 people in Hawaii. And I think that number would surprise a lot of people. Wow, 200, that's one-fifth of our population. Exactly. Wow, that is really good. That's a very high percentage. I mean, even people that on the outside look like they're middle-class, hey, they're still having a tough time in Hawaii making ends meet. I mean, they choose between do they pay for their medicine? Do they pay for their rent? Do they put gas in the car? Well, I'm here to tell you that kids and seniors, that's a lot of the people that we serve, they deserve a chance to thrive. And this is a transition for many people. But thankfully, we're able to have a lot of very generous donors in our community. About 70% of the food we get is through retailers, retail grocery stores and wholesalers, which is pretty neat. I mean, I grew up, you know, you don't waste. Waste not want not. And I think that's the credo that we live by and every day for me, it's like a treasure hunt. I think it's wonderful, Stan. Well, we need to get to a break, but I do want to get into the actual mechanics of how this all works, because when you think about hundreds of thousands of pounds of, I mean, how many pallets you all do and all that stuff, we're going to talk about that. That sounds good. I really am quite passionate about what the Hawaii Food Bank does. And Adele and Stan have given us a small indication of what you can do and how important it is for you to be a part of the Hawaii Food Bank if you live here in Hawaii or anywhere else in the world, how important it is to help your neighbors. They may not be your direct neighbors, but they are part of our society and we need to give them some assistance. We'll be back in a minute. I'm Seymour Kazimurski on Seymour's World at Think Tech Hawaii. Aloha, it's summertime in Honolulu, Hawaii. My name is Stephen Philip Katz. I'm your host for Shrink Wrap Hawaii. We're on every Tuesday at three o'clock and we talk about mental health and general health. Join us. Thank you. Aloha, I'm Kaui Lucas, host of Hawaii is My Mainland every Friday here on Think Tech Hawaii. I also have a blog of the same game at kauilukas.com where you can see all of my past shows. Join me this Friday and every Friday at 3 p.m. Aloha. Aloha! Michael, University of Hawaii football team under Rolovich is gonna kick butt this season. In case you didn't understand me, University of Hawaii football team is gonna kick butt under Rolovich this season. So be sure to follow us on Think Tech Hawaii and Hibachi Top. I'll be at every game. And remember, Aloha! Hi, welcome back to Seymour's World of Think Tech Hawaii. We have one of my most important shows today which is how do we help people who really need assistance? And the Hawaii Food Bank in Hawaii is an amazing organization, an organization that feeds more people per capita than anywhere in the world. The little state of Hawaii is able to do that. And a lot of it has to do with the letter carriers. And Adele, you were talking before about what you do. Tell us a little bit about the stories. Okay, so I've been with a letter carrier for almost 18 years. And I just helped out every year, not really knowing behind the scenes. So one year I was asked to be a coordinator, walked into the warehouse. You were talking about the Hawaii Food Bank. Yeah, the Hawaii Food Bank. I walked into the warehouse. And right before our food drive, the warehouse was empty. And then after our food drive, how the shelves were just flourished. And I was like, this is amazing. But what really hit home too is our food drive is held the second Saturday of May, every single year. Next year is gonna be our 25th anniversary. And I didn't realize that the kids during the summer months, a lot of them don't have food. And so our drive happening in May, it sets them up for the summer months. Wow. So that even made me even more passionate about the drive. So how did this year's drive go? The May drive this year? Yeah, so this is probably, I think in our top five of the 24 years, and like we mentioned earlier, over 526,000 pounds of food was collected in Hawaii alone. So Stan, what happens when you get 526,000 pounds of food? I'm trying to understand the actual logistics of it. 526,000 pounds of food, does it all come at one time? Well, I'm glad you asked that Seymour because we're closed on Saturday. And that's when they collect, right? It's on Saturday. Yeah, and so think about it. I mean, all these litter carriers with these little trucks, and they had to deliver the mail too, you know. Now there's stuff with all this food. So it all goes to their station, their post office. So what we do is a lot of very generous companies in town donate their truck and a driver, and we assign them post offices to go to on Saturday, the second Saturday of May. So the trucks all come in and assign times to the food bank. And you unload. And we receive them from 7 o'clock till 10 o'clock at night. So I want to put a plug in here for the AFL-CIO because they help arrange a lot of volunteers. And believe it or not, there's 400 volunteers. 400 volunteers. 400 volunteers just unloading these trucks and stocking the shelves. It's just controlled chaos. And our Kaiser is so generous. They provide dinner for all the volunteers. And Koala Moa is who provided it. But hey, we got to get done fast because it's back to work, baby. And you have a lot of sponsors too, right? I read some of these sponsors that you have on this drive if you want to, or show it on there. Down at the bottom, you can see. Yeah, we want to put a plug in for the people that make this happen with these blue bags. This is quite expensive for us. So I want to thank McDonald's and I want to thank Minahuni Water and I want to thank Hanlou Frey as well as, of course, AFL-CIO for helping subsidize the cost of these bags. And we're looking for more sponsors all the time. I was just going to say, can anybody be a sponsor? Do they just call you? Yes. Absolutely. Yes, we do. Because we're scared. We're scared. You're scared of it. You have to go out and order all this. Right. You know what I really admire about what you do, because I'm involved in several philanthropic organizations as well, is that A, 95% of the money that's raised goes directly towards the cause. That's wonderful. But that you're getting the community involved, that you're getting others involved. For instance, I do a foster kids program and we're doing an awards banquet in December and I happen to be the recipient of the Volunteer of the Year award for that banquet, which is very nice and I appreciate it. But all the kids are participating because they are going to be part of the event to make sure they understand why things happen. And I think you're doing the same thing. The letter carriers, what a... I wanted to share my image about volunteers. Years ago, we used to collect our own food, box our own food, go home at 10 o'clock in the night. Through the years in the community, we got volunteers from the high schools, the Navy and the Navy SEALs come out and everything. And so now we have over a hundred volunteers that just come to our pro-city post office. That's fabulous. And we're able to go home at five. And you have to see when the volunteers come out, knowing that they're giving back, you gotta see the face, they long for our food driver. Sometimes we dread it, honestly, because he said, we still deliver the mail, we let the public know upon our regular mail delivery, we still pick up the food. So we're doing dual jobs at that time. Go ahead. Yeah, so now that volunteers come out and then they're like, we're so excited to help. And then so we see the passion in them and then it makes us like, okay, wake up. This is just one day out of here. It's all good, you know? I think, you know, the passion that you have and Stan that you have, it's so evident that you love the job that you're doing because it's such a direct involvement. You know, in my work, I just got back from China and I was working over there for a client and we're talking about building zip lines, you know, zip-track lines for the Beijing Olympics. And yeah, it's all great stuff. But when you see that you're doing something directly involved for a child to eat, to have a meal, I mean, that is so much more worthy. Where did that come from for you? Stan, you were mentioning about your cancer. Well, I've been in the food business in Hawaii for 30 years, so I know a little bit about where there's catch points, where there's waste. But to your point, yeah, I got that diagnosis and that's really a bummer. But I thought a lot about my life and I read a book about the purpose-driven life and I said to myself, if I ever come out of this, you know, it'd be great to do something, to actually help somebody. And I gotta tell you, I love to go to work every day. I love the people that I work with and working for a nonprofit, it's a total different mindset. I mean, the guy next to you- Not about the money, is it, Stan? It's not the same as just fighting like heck to make quota. It's different than the guy next to you just trying to get his bonus. And he's got a different set of objectives of your, I mean, this is a total different thing. I mean, we all work together very hard and when we have different events, like great chefs, where we turn our whole warehouse into a restaurant, or when we do construction, which is coming up, or when we do our food drives, all the people in our company have to circle the wagons and it's all about the next event. Stan, you gave me a saying that you believe in. Could you repeat it for us? Oh, I'd love to. Muhammad Ali, I thought, had a great quote when he said, service is the rent we pay for our room here on earth. And that is so true, so true. And obviously it's something that you ascribe to now, which is wonderful. Now you Adele- I don't know. I don't know. I don't know if you're reaching the right, okay. Go ahead, because it's absolutely apt for what we're talking about. Right, okay, so I went to attend, I'll say, think about what he said. You never think it's gonna be you, diagnostic cancer. So 2014 I get a call from the doctor on a Sunday before Memorial Day. I said, doctors don't call you with good news on a Sunday. And so he told me, you just never think it's you. So I thought about my life at that time and I'm like, what am I gonna do? So I actually went to a seminar, side seminars and every day they sent a thought for the day. I wanted to share this thought. It says, the things you do for yourself are gone when you are gone. But I need glasses. But the things you do for others remain as your legacy. That's absolutely true. Yeah, and so when I just heard this thought and being on the show today, I had chickens again, more so. I wanna give back and I don't wanna cry, but. That's okay. No, but you know, it just, it hits home. It's just one person at a time if we can just help one person and it just takes a little. But can you imagine if everybody had the same mindset and everybody just gave a little, how amazing the road would be? You're 100% right. And I think you are both testament to that. The idea that you are now in a stage of your life, no matter, although you still don't look like you have grandchildren, but you totally, I can't believe it. I have two beautiful grandchildren. You're at a stage in your life where you're starting to realize that giving back is more important than taking. And I think it's so impressive. Stan, I've known you for 30 years that at the ages that we are all at now, if we can convince more and more people to do the same, just think about helping somebody cross the street or just do something for somebody in whatever way, fashion that you can. Give somebody a meal, do something for others that have a little less fortunate times than you have and you will feel so much better inside. You will feel so good about yourself. And that's part of the message that we have, which I think is terrific. Now, you have a shirt here. I've been on it. And I'm excited, because this is from a previous year, but I'm excited that this is one of your favorite colors. It is. My wife, Sue, says I look good in orange. So don't have to worry about it. But every year we get a T-shirt like this. So beautiful. You see the woman on here? Wow. And it says the Hawaii Food Bank and the Better Carriers Food Drive. Can you put it up? Yeah. Look at that. And so every year we get a different color. This year we had like a royal blue. OK. So I guess, wait, I have to show this. She can zoom in. This is our NALC, where is it? Ear logo. Myrna's NALC logo. So that's the Letter Carriers shirt. That's your shirt? Yes. Oh, that's wonderful. And the day that you do the collection, do they let you wear it? Remember, yes, we all wear it. On May 22nd. So some of the pictures that she showed on there, this year was a royal. Right, I saw them. And so we all wear it on the street. We wear it at the food bank, and so it's exciting. And then we give all our volunteers. So think about it for those second Saturday in May. So next year is May 13th, 2017. If you want to volunteer, come to our office. We'll feed you lunch. See how beautiful? Yeah. We'll feed you lunch, and you get a free shirt. Oh, that is so good. So put it on your calendar. Now, Stan, besides theirs, you take food all the time, right? Yes, we do. Any time could people drop off food? Yes, we do. You just come down to our warehouse at 2611 Keely House Street. Keely House. Keely House. So it's in the point of order. Take a look up Hawaii Food Bank. Yes, or go to our website. We have an excellent website. Google it. Oh, sorry. Yep, that's wonderful. So you can also drop off food at any Napa auto parts store, and our trucks pick up there. I know at Temple of Manuel, we drive food, or we get food for you guys for your truck. Put a shout out to Richard Field. Yes, exactly. He's kind of minding me. He's a good golfer. Richard, I know you watch my show, because I've had comments from you. So good comments, by the way. Yes, absolutely. Yes. Or any Ruby Tuesdays on the island. So Napa auto parts, Ruby 2. We try to make it easy for people to donate food to us. What an organization. I am so impressed. And remember now, send checks too. That's right. Next year is our 25th year of 25th anniversary. We want it to be, I mean, if we can shoot for a million pounds, nothing is too far-reaching. So do you think that Adele is really a very calm, easy person about this? You are a wonderful, wonderful example of somebody who loves what they do. Stan, to both of you, I want to say thank you so much for coming on the show. I think it's so important, the work that you guys are doing. And I wanted to emphasize it, because it is, you know, the news doesn't talk about it very much. They talk more about the stuff like terrorism, which I know is bad. But we need to help the people here. And everybody, everybody could do something so simple is take a bag and just fill the bag with some stuff from your pantry, not a big deal, and drop it off. You'll feel so good about doing that. Yes, and don't worry about these expiration dates or these dates on there. Just give us the food. And then you guys will take it. There's a lot of confusion about a best of use by date and expiration. Don't worry about it. Just give it to us. We'll figure it out. Good. Thank you for doing what you do and allowing us to share. Thank you, Seymour. Oh, it's my pleasure. And it really is my pleasure. You know, none of us get paid for anything that we do here. So I just think it's a wonderful, wonderful way to convey a message to our audience that they can do and make a difference. Thank you, Adele. Thank you, Stan. Thanks, Seymour. Thank you, everybody, for watching our show today. I'm not sure if we'll be back in two weeks again because my son is getting married. Aaron is getting married here in Honolulu and the wedding is on Saturday and the show is on Friday. And I do have a show planned for the 29th of July, but things might get a little tough with time and everybody flying in for the wedding. So Aloha from Seymour's World on ThinkDec Hawaii. Hopefully we'll see you in two weeks. If not, we'll see you in a month. Bye-bye.