Steven Teruya

Wednesday - July 28, 2010
By MidWeek Staff

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Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, and those lucky enough to stop by Finance Factors Center (1164 Bishop St.) this Friday morning will certainly start the day off right with a local-style breakfast of Kukui Brand Portuguese sausage, scrambled eggs and rice freshly prepared by Finance Factor employees. Plates cost just $5, and all of the proceeds will be donated to the nonprofit Making Ends Meet.

“We’ve always selected a charity that was not very big, a small charity where the $6,000 to $7,000 we raise would mean a lot,” explains Finance Factors president and COO Steven Teruya (above left). Past recipients have included River of Life Mission, Kau Kau Wagon and KEY Project.

“Making Ends Meet is in their third year of operation and basically just helping out those in financial need, so the name of their organization is really indicative of what they do, helping others make ends meet.”

The breakfast benefit began 15 years ago as part of a larger company fundraiser for Aloha United Way. For the first few years, Teruya’s department cooked up 100 meals out of the underground parking lot, but its popularity soon required a move upstairs and expansion tenfold to where today volunteers serve up more than 1,000 breakfast plates in the span of twoand-a-half hours.

“We open at 6:30 in the morning and before 8 o’clock it’s sold out,” he says, giving fair warning to any who may be considering sleeping in that day.

But there’s no slowing down after the morning rush. In addition to his involvement with the financial company’s Corporate Giving Program, which gives away $60,000 to $100,000 a year to local charities, Teruya is a board member with Junior Achievement of Hawaii, which is having its 11th annual Golf Classic on Sept. 30 at Kapolei Golf Course.

“It’s a nice function to support an organization that, you know, gets out into the schools and teaches kids in grades K-12 about entrepreneurship,” says Teruya, a Mid-Pacific Institute grad. Call 545-1777 or e-mail .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) for tournament registration and information.

“I insist that we go all out for these types of events,” Teruya says. “Whether it’s raising money or serving food or participating in an MS fun walk, we try to get everyone out and show that Finance Factors is behind the community.”