Tommy “Kahikina” Ching
Tommy “Kahikina” Ching - Food Basket fundraiser KONA FM & KHBC, Radio DJ
“The Food Basket is VERY important…it is a bridge. On this island we have the food, we have the means to feed everyone that needs a meal, we just have to connect the food to hungry people.”
For the past 6 years, I have teamed up with KTA, along with various sponsors for Kahikina’s Annual Feed-A-Thon, for ten days in a row and ten hours per day myself and the staff of the food basket staff set up shop fronting KTA stores around the island, and accept donations whether monetary or food, to date the drive has now collected almost 283,000 pounds of food. This year more than ever because things were very tight for everyone, and it was the first year of my new radio station KONA FM and yet we were able to raise 83,000 pounds.
There are many stories, like West Hawaii Concrete delivers their donations collected by management and staff escorted by their cement trucks, some people bring a bag of rice to each location, a woman once told me that she hasn’t much but she knows she has to share what she can, little 4 year old girl walking past me said “Mommy that’s the man that feeds the hungry people” and came back with a can of food “here I hope it helps”. The students of Punana Leo Waimea held a week long drive at their school and delivered the food with all of their students doing a hawaiian chant, their teacher said the students asked “Why does Uncle Kahikina have to raise food for the hungry children?” Why don’t their Mommies go to the store to get food?
No I have not used the food basket, but many years ago my family was on welfare, for a couple years, then I decided that I was healthy and smart enough to get off of the program and leave it for those who truly need the help. During the food drive time and again I have gotten donations from people that are doing well now and just a year ago they getting hand-outs and now was time for them to give back.
There many problems that face our community, traffic, economy, development, budget short falls and hunger. But I look at hunger as a curable disease, we have the food, we have the means to feed everyone that needs a meal, we just have to connect the food to hungry people. But this is by no means an easy task that’s why the more people that get involved we can beat this thing. For me it’s hard to imagine a country that is supposed to the all mighty United States cannot feed it’s people, maybe one day our government will get it.
The Food Basket is very important, they are the bridge between food and hungry people, we must have an agency to continually provide this service, even more now the way things are going with unemployment raising, businesses closing, families struggling day to day, there must be a place that can provide for those on hard times.
