Give & Go Community Meal Program

Want to support local restaurants and farmers?

In Hawai‘i food brings us closer together. In the act of sharing food, we also share ALOHA and this simple act creates unity amongst our diverse island melting pot. Perhaps now more than ever this simple act is what will keep us healthy, resilient and connected.

Following this tradition and to address the current impact of this pandemic on our beloved restaurant industry, Chef Hui created the Give & Go Community Meal Program. We hope, that by helping our local restaurants, we can also uplift our local agriculture community by using their produce and also feed the people who are in need across our islands.

The Give & Go Community Meal Program reminds us to honor the multitude of positive outcomes created from the simple act of feeding one another.

Our goal is to “keep our farmers farming, chefs cooking, and communities fed.”

#GiveandGoHI

What The Program Does

The Thought

During the COVID shutdowns, when restaurants were offering takeout only, the Give & Go Community Meal Program was an opportunity to help feed communities in need by producing additional takeout meals each week. The program still helps support restaurants and communities today with dining rooms back open.

The Process

Through private funders and partners, this program will offer each meal stipend for an additional set of meals to be given to the community. As restaurants promote this program to their networks, a portion of proceeds from each customer to-go order will support these collaborative efforts.

The Goal

By purchasing a meal from participating restaurants, customers will amplify the Give & Go Community Meal Program one meal at a time. This program was created to help off-set the drastic reduction in daily revenue due to COVID mandates, while supporting local farmers and the necessary feeding efforts in our community.

How it all works

We reach out to a local restaurant, and partner them with a community in need of meals.

We collectively decide on what kind of meals and the quantity and then schedule a team of amazing volunteers to pick up and deliver meals.

We have worked with several partner organizations since 2020 to get meals out to locations such as Waimanalo, Papakōlea, and Pālolo Valley. We also had meal deliveries to organizations such as Child and Family Services, KVIBE, and the Salvation Army on O`ahu.

Chef Paul Matsumoto and the crew at Beni Co Bentos have been with us since day one producing meals on a weekly basis.