On Oct. 1, volunteer Jesse Denny was filling in at the stove, stirring chicken and vegetables for lunch at the Nāʻālehu Resilience Hub. Hawaiʻi Public Radio reported that about 150 people usually come for a free meal on a service day and that the hub serves three times a week. The meal was part of the regular rhythm continuing after Hurricane Lala, while the community worked through the storm’s aftermath and the hub’s team considered what longer-term support could look like.
The hub began as a meal-distribution site during the pandemic and also provides summer lunches for students. After Lala, the same place became a distribution center for neighbors seeking food, water, propane and other supplies. HPR reported that volunteers included people whose own homes had been damaged.
Flooding brought mud into homes and businesses in Nāʻālehu and nearby Waiʻōhinu, cut power and water, and left debris blocking roads, according to HPR’s Oct. 8 report. The hub is housed at Nāʻālehu Hongwanji. Its building had only minor flooding, but the kitchen could not operate normally without water and electricity, creating a challenge for a group whose work depends on serving meals.
An Aug. 31 relief notice from Puna Hongwanji Mission identifies the Nāʻālehu Resilience Hub as a community support group operating a distribution center at the temple with Vibrant Hawaiʻi and other local organizations. The mission described the response as long-term recovery, with needs expected to change over time. That primary account documents the hub’s role and its local partnerships as the emergency response was still taking shape.
Volunteers improvised to keep food service moving. HPR reported that one community member brought a solar generator so food could be refrigerated, while another brought a food truck that served as a satellite kitchen. Residents from around the area came to help, including some whose own homes had been affected. The arrangements let the group use familiar community connections to work around basic services that were still disrupted.
The initial relief effort was larger than the hub’s usual meal program. Hawaiʻi News Now reported that for about two weeks after Lala the hub served as the area’s main distribution site and handed out as many as 170 meals a day, along with ice, water, canned goods, paper towels and household items. That emergency-response figure describes a different period from the roughly 150 people HPR says typically attend a regular meal service three times a week.
As emergency needs changed, the hub’s team began looking at recovery beyond immediate supplies. Team leader Marcia Masters told HPR that she moved to the area more than 50 years ago and remembered Nāʻālehu as a busy plantation town. HPR’s report says Kaʻū Sugar Company closed in 1996, removing the town’s main economic engine; Masters believes the community never fully regained its footing.
The hub’s longer-term kitchen plan has been developing for months. Hawaiʻi Public Radio reported in January that Hawaiʻi County had awarded the hub $25,000 to help build a commercial kitchen intended to be open to the public. In its October report, HPR said the team is working to build out that space as a shared kitchen where community members could prepare goods for sale. The newer report did not give an opening date.
Possible products named by Masters include smoked meat and jams. The hub has also recently received a walk-in refrigerator and freezer for meal distribution, and Masters wants community members to be able to use the equipment as part of value-added food production. Those details connect the proposed kitchen to a service already operating at the site, while leaving the timeline and final arrangements for public use unsettled.
For now, the hub’s continuing meals and the kitchen project sit at different stages: one is an active service, the other is a buildout in progress. After a storm response that relied on volunteers, temporary equipment and neighboring organizations, the team’s next step is to expand how the same community space can support Kaʻū over time.
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