Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 5, Number 3, 1 March 1988 — Several Thousand Workers Came Together to Feed 50,000 People [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Several Thousand Workers Came Together to Feed 50,000 People

By Deborah Lee Ward, Assistant Editor Ka Wai Ola O OHA In Saturday's (January 23) early morning darkness, a crew of several thousand workers had already eome together for what would be a long day of cooking, chopping, slicing, heating and boxing, and distributing some 60-65,000 meals to feed the hungry crowds of Ho'olokahi. Gathered under four enormous tents in the AJoha Stadium parking lot, about 4,000 volunteers — many of them polieemen and firemen, members of unions and many other organizations, friends and ohana turned out with their terrific kokua to get this tremendous job done. Some of the work, such as cooking of the kalua pig, had been done the week before. The cooked meat was shredded and frozen, thēn heated just before

serving. The many hands involved in an epie day of food preparation were coordinated by volunteer Bob Lew of Marriott Hotels, who said he believed it was the first gathering of that size to serve a hot meal in just a few hours' time, between 3 and 6 p.m. "It's as fresh as you ean get it," he said. From the cooking to slicing tents, and into the heating, and serving areas, all food handlers wore plastic gloves and worked assembly-line style for maximum efficiency. And when their shifts were done, these workers were able to enjoy fresh and hot meals cooked on the spot, donated by Blackie Wong of Wong 'n Wong Restaurant, who with his wife pitched in with their eook to prepare meals for the volunteers.

Toni Nishida cooking teriyaki meat.

This tandem of Hyran Smith, Honolulu Poliee Department, and Mitchell Balutski of the Honolulu Fire Department, work one of the barbecue grills.

This crew is busy heating up kalua pig for supper boxes.

Still friendly and smiling after a long day of packing box suppers is this crew.