KAILUA-KONA — They came at the right time.
As The Food Basket continues to supply food, water and other necessities to those affected by the Kilauea Volcano eruption — in addition to the thousands of families it serves monthly around the island — the recent arrival of new forklifts and electric pallet jacks couldn’t have come at a better time.
“We’re ready for this crisis with these,” said Kristin Frost Albrecht, executive director of The Food Basket, Hawaii Island’s lone food bank.
On Wednesday, a handful of volunteers, dignitaries and employees gathered to celebrate the acquisition at the organization’s warehouse in Kailua-Kona. The two forklifts and two pallet jacks will be split between the organization’s warehouses in Kailua-Kona and Hilo.
Over the past three weeks, the organization has quadrupled its output for the lava flow, providing nonperishable goods to partners and the Salvation Army Distribution Center, as well as for meals served at Red Cross shelters, Albrecht said. Items are coming into and going out of the warehouses within 24 hours, and the nonprofit has even started to purchase food.
“Every day, the need goes up,” she said.
Food and water donations can be dropped off at The Food Basket warehouses in Kailua-Kona at 73-4161 Ulu Wini Place and in Hilo at 40 Holomua St. Monetary donations can be made online at www.hawaiifoodbasket.org.
The new Yale equipment was purchased thanks to a sizable donation from the LGA Family Foundation that came just 48 hours after a December West Hawaii Today article was published about The Food Basket’s need for two new forklifts that were estimated to cost $40,000. At the time, the organization was using two old, unsafe forklifts for which parts were becoming obsolete.
Initially, the donation was $80,000, however, the foundation chipped in an additional $10,000 to cover the purchase of the two electric pallet jacks, said Albrecht.
“It’s amazing, it’s like having another full-time employee in the warehouse,” she said of the new equipment. “That’s the difference it makes for us. And, being low-staffed, that means a lot for us.”