By the Inside Outreach team · April 22, 2023We got the call after the storm. At Hui Mahiʻai ʻĀina in Waimānalo, the winds had picked up the camp’s 40-foot foodbank container and flipped it on its head.
Think about that for a second. A shipping container. Upside down.
That container isn’t storage. It’s how Aunty Blanche’s community gives free food and toiletries to about 600 people a month. People living in the camp, and people from all over the island who come by when the month runs longer than the paycheck.
Who is Aunty Blanche?
If you don’t know her yet, you should. Aunty Blanche and Uncle Willie walk Waimānalo beach and ask people living in tents to pack up and come home with them.
Home is Hui Mahiʻai ʻĀina. Tiny homes and tents on her land. It’s drug free. There are rules. Everybody works the 22-acre garden. Residents run their own market stalls to make money and fundraise. It isn’t a shelter. It’s a community that teaches people how to live together again.
“Coming from the beach parks, living on the streets, it’s rough. Over here, you can put your head down and rest.”
A resident at Hui Mahiʻai ʻĀina
We’ve been behind her since 2020. Christmas bikes for the keiki. Christmas cards. Tiny homes, one at a time. And now this.
What we asked for
Roofers. Framers. Materials. People who know how to fix something that big. And money for the repairs, given straight to Hui Mahiʻai ʻĀina.
And Oʻahu did what Oʻahu does. The community got it rebuilt.
Why this matters
It’s easy to talk about homelessness like it’s a math problem. Beds and budgets. But when the foodbank went over, 600 real people were about to go without. That’s what a broken system looks like from the ground.
The bigger picture
This is happening in a state where a huge share of working families can’t cover rent, food, childcare and gas in the same month. Those families aren’t lazy. Most of them work. Some work two jobs. It’s just that expensive to live here.
So when a foodbank that serves 600 people a month goes down, it isn’t only the camp that feels it. It’s the single mom down the road. It’s the kupuna on a fixed income. It’s the family that just needs to get to the end of the month.
How you can help
If you’re a roofer, framer or just handy, Aunty can always use you. If you’ve got food or toiletries, drop them at 41-902 OluOlu St. in Waimānalo. If you want to give money, give straight to huimahiaiaina.org or give to us and we’ll get it where it’s needed most.
And go visit. Buy something at their market. Meet the people. It changes how you see all of this.
Aunty Blanche isn’t waiting for the system. She’s solving it with her own two hands. The least the rest of us can do is help her flip the container back over.
Mahalo to everyone who showed up with tools, wood and dollars. You kept 600 people fed.
