HAWAIIAN STYLE
Star Market helps Maryknoll beef up fund-raising
Move over hulihuli chicken, laulau and Zippy's chili. There's something new on the local fund-raising plate: steak.
Sirloin steak.
And, likely soon: pot roast.
Unlike the commercially successful Mainland steak plate from which the new Island tradition was "borrowed," the local version comes with the requisite two scoops rice — but, with a nod to health, tossed salad instead of mac salad.
And at $6.50 a plate, it has spelled sweet success for nonprofit projects such as Maryknoll School Project Graduation.
Winslow Tanabe, a 1972 Maryknoll grad and chairman of the school's 2004 Project Graduation, remembers fund-raising as one of the more unpleasant prerequisites of an Island upbringing.
"Hulihuli chicken was the thing in those days," he said. And cookie sales, for youth league. "It's not something you looked forward to."
Also changing is the way local graduates celebrate: When Tanabe graduated, the legal drinking age was 18. Graduation parties were usually at someone's house, often with little supervision, he said.
Today the drinking age is 21, and parents, schools and kids work hard to keep the celebrating safe — and sane. About two-thirds of Hawai'i's high schools held Project Graduation parties this year. But the all-night, drug- and alcohol-free bashes can be expensive, and that means lots of fund-raising.
The event draws almost 100 percent participation at Maryknoll. "We are a small school," said Tanabe, so the cost of the all-night food and entertainment extravaganza must be spread over only 140 students — about $200 a graduate, or $28,000 total. After fund-raisers and donations, the cost to each student: $50.
Hulihuli chicken sales had been the school's mainstay, though they were labor intensive and messy, with little profit, and there were always complaints about the smoke. This year, the graduation committee considered other Island fund-raising traditions: selling Christmas trees, car washes, entertainment coupon books.
That's when Star Market's deli/bakery manager, Dick Green, stepped in to suggest the steak idea. For Star, it fulfilled two goals: president John Fujieki's search for a viable, ongoing community service project, and a way for local nonprofit groups to raise money. It was also locally sensitive — and novel.
For Maryknoll, the first big group try the new concept, the choice was a no-brainer.
"Very do-able," Tanabe said. It was cost-effective — an affordable $6.50, 8-ounce, cooked-to-order, sirloin steak, two scoops rice and tossed salad; set-up; tents and equipment, all provided by Star at cost, rendering a $2 profit per plate.
Hence, no "strong-arm" ticket-selling to co-workers or door-to-door sales, no pick-up dates to remember. "The customers come to you!" Tanabe joked — and ample parking around tents at various Star Markets. Maryknoll had to provide only a four- or five-member parent/student team to man each tent.
"Essentially," Tanabe said, "we just bring the muscle."
Green even used a little ho'omalimali to coax donations from soda vendors to add to the profits, Tanabe said.
Locally, the new steak plate concept was an instant hit. Sales soared from 112 plates the first day this month to close to 300 a day in a couple of weekends. Organizers soon tweaked the Mainland concept with another local fund-raiser tradition: students holding streetside, "carwash-style" advertising banners. Business boomed.
With word-of-mouth advertising, soon people were calling for the next sales date or to sign up various canoe clubs, halau, volleyball clubs, football teams and Project Graduations for future dates.
Green foresees sales topping 400 to 500 plates a day. And, Tanabe thinks the store — and Maryknoll — may very well be on the cutting edge of a new Island tradition.
Now with the initial success of the steak, Green is considering other "cost-effective" fund-raising items. Look for pot roast. "With gravy and rice, that will be killer!" Green said. Or chicken or ribs.
And now that Star has tinkered with the traditional fund-raiser, it continues to think outside the box.
"Soon, maybe fund-raisers won't just be for weekends any more," Green said.
The Advertiser's Wade Kilohana Shirkey is kumu of Na Hoaloha O Ka Roselani No'eau. He writes on Island life.
