Dear Friends and Supporters of MALAMA MEALS:
You may have read or seen in the news about Malama Meals being ordered by the State Dept of Health to shut down. Click here for Hawaii News Now clip.
The Dept of Health’s decision to shut down Malama Meals was due mainly to concerns about the timely and safe delivery of our meals to our large number of locations. In particular, there was a complaint about our flying prepared meals from our kitchen in Oahu to the neighbor islands. You can be assured that we have always kept the safety and security of the people in need as our utmost concern. We have done everything possible to address these concerns from Day-One. Malama Meals operates in a state of the art, health-certified kitchen fully capable of handling large volume food production at one of the highest standards in the industry.
Due to this unexpected and forced shut-down, we are now diligently working with the Kupuna Food Coalition and the City and County of Honolulu Dept of Elderly Affairs to identify other meal assistance providers to continue our services. Unfortunately, this will take some time to accomplish as we had been servicing approximately 8,000 people daily. Sadly, many locations will be getting reduced or no meal assistance. We are extremely sorry for this disruption because we understand that our meals have been the sole safety-net for so many.
Support For Malama Meals
Malama Meals was organized on March 20 to facilitate the Shelter in Place mandate ordered by the Governor and Mayor. Through our home delivery program, we have helped to keep thousands of people in their homes, especially the kupuna who are most at risk unless they are sheltered in place. To date, we have provided more than 350,000 hot meals to the elderly, homeless, underprivileged children and the unemployed. Our desire was to serve as the bridge for food security until more established nonprofit organizations could take over this crucial role during this pandemic crisis.
As a self-funded program run by volunteer businesses and individuals, Malama Meals could not have achieved these milestones without the generous support from our donors and sponsors.
Time: 3/21/2020 – 5/15/2020
Total meals delivered: 362,100
Cost: Approximatly $1,800,000
Donations:
GoFundMe $52,820
Hawaii Community Foundation: $100,000
Cash donations from individuals and organizations: Approximately $32,000
Food, goods, equipment and services: Approximate value of $90,000
Government programs: $12,600 from OHA