Saying Thanks By Sharing
What started as Ko Olina employees helping one family grows into feeding 4,000 disadvantaged Leeward folks Thanksgiving dinner, and expands to the Neighbor Islands
By Chad Pata
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a laugh, thinking of the confused owners when the homeless descended on their establishment.
He has now done these mass feedings in Hilo and Kona and on Kauai, and caught the eyes of the local churches. Why was this unassuming man from Oahu feeding their homeless?
His simple answer: ‘Cause they weren’t.
“A lot of people want to do it, but they waiting for someone else to do it,” says To’omata. “Then they’ll step in and say ‘Hey, we got it.’ In our heart we all want to do it, but we never step up. It takes a couple guys from Oahu to come in and spend their own money to get it going. It’s a good thing.”
It has become a thing of Island pride, each island wanting to take care of its own. They have all now mirrored To’omata’s Thanksgiving program, cooking up the dinners the Saturday before Thanksgiving and serving them at the churches. A couple of years ago he went as far as New Zealand, and they now are keeping up the tradition as well.
“We choose to do them the week before so no stress on the families of the volunteers,” says To’omata. “Plus plenty of people feed them on Thanksgiving Day, so this gives them two weeks of food.”
He has now expanded his endeavors beyond just food: aiding mothers with imprisoned husbands on Kauai, and bringing temporary shelter to residents on the Windward side of the Big Island.
To’omata had heard of the homeless Hawaiians on the King Kamehameha land outside of Hilo. When he first approached them, they told him only Hawaiians could enter, but when he came back with tarps, tents and lanterns, they welcomed him with open arms.
Now the churches of the Big Island have taken over that aid, but To’omata calls on them every so often to see how they are doing.
“Sometimes we go back and check on them, say, ‘How them tents doing?’” says To’omata. “They say ‘It’s awesome, we’re doing it ... you guys not coming, right?’ I say, ‘When you guys stop, we’ll show up again.’”
During this holiday season, we all could learn from To’omata. Maybe we should set aside our manini internecine conflicts between the Islands and just try to help each other survive here in paradise.
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