Hungry For The Holiday
Not even Norman Rockwell could paint a better Thanksgiving. From left: Gerald Shintaku of Kraft, Dick Grimm of the Foodbank, Randy Slentz of Times, Sweetie Pacarro, Herbert Gushikuma of Don Quijote, Angela Baker of Tamura’s and Clayton Eto of Safeway are teaming up for Kraft’s Check-Out Hunger campaign to make sure that no one in Hawaii is…Hungry For The Holidays
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You can feed hungry kids, seniors and families at check-out counters in Kraft’s Check-out Hunger program
It’s beginning to look a lot like the holidays, that time of year when we all put aside our differences and celebrate the spirit of aloha with our ohana.
Most of those celebrations - whether it be with blood relatives, in-laws, friends from school-kine days or acquaintances met a handful of times throughout the year - involve feasting.
And with what is quite possibly the biggest excuse to stuff our faces coming up next week, it seems only appropriate that the Hawaii Foodbank, Kraft Foods Hawaii and local food stores Tamura’s, Times, Safeway, Don Quijote and Kokua Market Natural Foods Co-Op have teamed up for Kraft’s Check-Out Hunger campaign.
“We kick it off during this time because it’s the key time of year for people who need food,” says Gerald Shintaku, Kraft Foods Hawaii business manager. “This year, more than anything else, the need for food has just kind of exponentially grown because of what’s going on in the economy and the world around us.”
The concept is simple. Now through Jan. 11, each cash register at participating locations will have a stand with three different bright-green coupons to choose from: $2.81 feeds a child breakfast for one week; $12.43 can provide a senior lunch for a month; and for $16.84 - or the cost of a Thanksgiving turkey, stuffing and a pumpkin pie - Check-Out Hunger can give a local family dinner for one week.
Customers choose a coupon and hand it to the cashier, who then rings up the donation with the rest of the grocery bill.
“When we’re ‘checking out’hunger, I always buy (a coupon) to feed a family,” confesses Kraft spokesperson Sweetie Pacarro. “While I’m buying food for myself to feed my family, I can spend $17 to feed (another) family.”
Which is exactly the motto of the Hawaii Foodbank: that no one in our family goes hungry.
Through its partnership with more than 250 member agencies, nearly 300 food sources, and individual volunteers, Hawaii’s Foodbank has been able to feed 131,862 people statewide each year since its inception in 1983. More than 50 percent of the Foodbank’s funds and food supply come from individual donations and special events throughout the year, including the 16-year-old Check-Out Hunger campaign.
“We have prided ourselves at the Hawaii Foodbank to always be in a position to accommodate those programs that are necessary,” says Foodbank president Dick Grimm. “Our partners are very good at helping us accomplish our goals. We have a good mix.”
Grimm has been an integral part of the Foodbank for the past two decades. When he was at KGMB in 1989 as general manager of the television station, the then-news director suggested they adopt a nonprofit. Grimm went on to serve on the board of directors and in 1999, just when he decided to retire from the broadcast biz, was swiftly asked by the Foodbank to serve as interim president for a few weeks.
“That was a long time ago ... a long four or five weeks,” he remembers with a chuckle.
And though you would-n’t think so, the transition from head of a fast-paced media station to running a nonprofit was a natural fit.
“There’s no difference between a nonprofit and a for-profit business. If you’re bottom line is not black, you’re not gonna be around; if it’s red, you’re gonna be gone and you’re not going to be able to serve your constituencies. So you have to operate it as efficiently as you possibly can, and make sure that you have enough capital to continue to exist and serve those clients that you have to be there for,” states Grimm, who was the general manager of KITV for 17 years prior to his work at KGMB.
“To be successful in business does not mean that you have to give back to the community. But I think you have to be certainly aware of the community.”
He also credits the license renewal process broadcast stations used to have to go through as mandated by the Federal Communications Commission.
“You had to interview members of the community, all aspects of the community - business, nonprofit, government, religious - and try to find out what the top problems in the community were at that time,” the Chicago native explains. “What that allowed the general managers of the stations to do was to get to meet everyone in all different sectors of the community and to find out what the problems were and make them more aware of what they would have to do to try to help solve those problems.
“It was a wonderful, great experience. It just really opened my eyes to what the problems were and what efforts were being done to address those problems on a community-wide and, in this case, a statewide basis.”
He doesn’t just talk the talk, this college football player and boxer walks the walk. A former Marine, Grimm has served on a multitude of nonprofit and community organizations, including Easter Seals Society,
Junior Achievement, Clean Hawaii (1970s), State of Hawaii Sports Task Force, Chaminade University’s board of regents, board of advisers to the president of Kamehameha Schools and board of directors of Waialae Country Club, among others.
His business savvy and “steel-trap memory” also come in handy in his dayto-day affairs as head of the 26-year-old community resource. Among his top duties are to make sure the Foodbank has enough revenue to continue operations, tide itself over in times of hardship and purchase food, a prospect unimaginable a few years ago.
“Last year we purchased 1 million pounds of food; this year we’ll probably increase that to 1.4, 1.5 million pounds,” Grimm admits. “Our universe of food has shrunk while our universe of recipients has grown, so we have to go out and purchase a lot of food. We’re scratching.”
Looking to ease a little of that burden are the Foodbank’s partners in the Check-Out Hunger drive. Kraft Foods Hawaii started this year’s campaign Nov. 2 with a $5,000 donation, which it has done every year since 2003. In addition, Kraft employees and family volunteers continually give back to the Foodbank throughout the year.
“It’s probably been more than $700,000 in total since we got involved,” Shintaku says. “The consumers in the state of Hawaii have given to the program, so we think it’s been pretty successful to help a lot of hungry people.”
Tamura Superette, or simply Tamura’s to its regular patrons, opened as a plantation store in the early 1900s. A century later the family-run business has outlasted many others, reaching out past its Waianae roots to outposts in Wahiawa, Hauula and Tamura’s Fine Wine & Liquors in Kaimuki and Kailua.
A constant is its commitment to keeping food on the tables of its customers, which is why owners Clifford and Cliff Tamura willingly jumped at the chance to help launch Check-Out Hunger in 1993.
“They’re all out for the community and the people, especially out in Waianae,” says Angela Baker, pricing department manager. “Our theme is ‘A family tradition of serving you.’ We try to keep our prices low and do a lot of donations - anything to help the people in our community.”
Another local company on board since day one is Times Supermarket. According to senior director of marketing and merchandising Randy Slentz, this decision was an easy one to make.
“Times became involved with the program because of its broad reach and the amount of Hawaii’s hungry that are helped by the program,” Slentz explains. “Each year the in-store contributions made by the associates and customers of Times Supermarket have increased.” (Last year the supermarket chain raised and donated more than $49,000 through its Check-Out Hunger partnership.)
Though a national company, Safeway believes in giving back to local communities. Be it through grants and product donations, e-scrip programs for schools or major fundraising campaigns run throughout the year, Kara M. Noe, government and public affairs manager for Safeway Northern California Division (which includes Hawaii), says that the food retailer prides itself in supporting the communities
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