Burn’n Love Partners with Food Bank to Provide Meals to Keiki

Darren Lee as Elvis sings “Hound Dog” with dancers and band. Courtesy photo.

By Maui Now Staff

The Burn’n Love stage production is offering $20 discount kamaʻāina tickets to their show today and tomorrow (Aug. 21 and 22, 2014), to raise funds for the Maui Food Bank.

Proceeds from the partnership will benefit the food bank’s Aloha Backpack Buddies program, which provides elementary school children a pre-filled backpack containing six meals they take home for the weekend.

Students are selected based on their enrollment in free and reduced meal programs at their school.

The discount tickets are available for Hawaiʻi residents with a valid ID, and are being offered at $20 instead of the $60+ prices offered on a normal purchase.  The offer is good for Thursday and Friday, Aug. 21 and 22, 2014.

To purchase the specially priced tickets, residents can call the Maui Theatre at (808) 856-7900, and must mention “Maui Food Bank” when reserving seats.  Company representatives encourage residents to reserve seats early, as the shows are expected to sell out.

“We’ve worked closely with Maui Food Bank since day one and continue to donate a portion of every Burn’n Love ticket sold each night. But when we found out how many young children don’t get proper meals on the weekends when they are not having school lunch, we wanted to help this specific program as well,” said Rick Dunaj, general manager of Burn’n Love in a joint press release.

(L to R) Burn’n Love General Manager, Rick Dunaj and Executive Producer Mike Kattawar present $5,000 donation to Maui Food Bank Executive Director Richard Yust in December 2013. Courtesy photo.

MFB’s Aloha Backpack Buddies program was launched in September 2012 with one school and now serves nine schools including four on Molokaʻi.

“Our Aloha Backpack Buddies program provides about 1,200 backpacks a month to children at risk of going hungry. Each school year we distribute over 90,000 meals through this program,” said Richard Yust, Maui Food Bank Executive Director.

“With Burn’n Love’s help and the help of our community, we hope to increase this and expand to reach more island keiki in need.”

Since December 2013, proceeds from the sale of Burn’n Love tickets have provided over 38,000 meals to island’s hungry through its partnership with Maui Food Bank, company representatives said.

The Burn’n Love production regularly runs every Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday at 8 p.m. at the Maui Theatre with ticket prices range in price from $59.99 to $109.99 for an all-access pass.