Hilo agency cuts back on free meals

By Kevin Dayton
Advertiser Big Island Bureau

HILO, Hawai'i — After years of serving hot lunches to the homeless three days a week in downtown Hilo, The Salvation Army has stopped providing meals on Fridays because of cuts in federal money for the program.

Capt. Fred Apuan, Salvation Army Hilo Temple corps officer, said the agency decided in late January to end the Friday meals, reasoning that the homeless would be able to get something to eat on Saturdays from a program run by another agency.

"It was a very hard decision to make," Apuan said.

"The alternative would have been to reduce what we were feeding them in some way, and I don't know how we could do that."

Apuan said a $1,000 donation from Salvation Army advisory board member Candace Moore and her mother, Colleen Berry, will allow the Friday meals to temporarily resume starting next week, but he is unsure what will happen when that money runs out.

"I think it's critical for our community that no one goes hungry, and this mostly affects the street people," Moore said. "This is affecting the people who really most need it."

Apuan said The Salvation Army has been offering the hot meals for years on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays to a sizable homeless population in downtown Hilo. On average, it serves 60 to 100 people each mealtime.

In recent years, the federal Emergency Food and Shelter Program has provided $10,000 a year to help pay for the operation, but this year the amount was cut to $3,000. The Salvation Army uses a volunteer cook and some donated materials, but it wasn't prepared to absorb a cut that large, Apuan said.

Representatives with the federal program were unavailable for comment.

Another major Hilo feeding program for the homeless, the Peanut Butter Ministry headquartered at Hilo United Methodist Church, absorbed a similar cut. Its share of money from the federal Emergency Food and Shelter Program dropped from about $12,000 last year to $8,000 this year, said Robert Cooper, co-chairman of the Peanut Butter Ministry Committee.

Cooper said the Peanut Butter Ministry, a combined effort by about eight Big Island churches, feeds approximately 100 people every Tuesday and Thursday. He said he is determined not to cut back on that schedule. "We're going to maintain the service ... It's important, and we're going to do it, and those people need to be fed."