Hawaiian Electric, Pacific Biodiesel launch holiday rice drive and recipe contest

Hawaiian Electric and Pacific Biodiesel are teaming up to support local food banks and encourage the use of local ingredients in holiday recipes.

The collaboration — Kākou for the Holidays — includes a rice drive and a holiday recipe contest.

“We’re collaborating with Pacific Biodiesel over the holidays to celebrate our ongoing partnership of using their locally sourced biofuel for our electric grid,” said Mike DeCaprio, vice president of power supply for Hawaiian Electric. “Kākou for the Holidays is a way for us to come together to support our communities and honor our companies working together for clean energy in Hawai‘i.”

Employees from both companies are participating in the rice drive by collecting bags and boxes of rice — a commonly requested item across Hawaiʻi food banks— for donation to food banks on each island.

During its first holiday rice drive last year, Pacific Biodiesel employees donated nearly 600 pounds of rice to local food banks. This year, Hawaiian Electric’s 2,500 employees are joining in the effort.

“The holiday season is a critical time for food banks, and the government shutdown has increased food needs across our communities,” said Jenna Long, Pacific Biodiesel director of operations. “We’re honored to partner with Hawaiian Electric to support local food banks and we encourage folks to consider donating to the food banks now more than ever.”

Additionally, Pacific Biodiesel founders Bob and Kelly King will be donating to each island’s food bank a supply of their company’s new Kuleana Hawaiʻi Grown Sunflower Oil – produced from the sunflowers Pacific Biodiesel farms on Kauaʻi and Maui.

The Holiday Recipe Contest runs through Dec. 15.

Recipes must be prepared with local ingredients, such as Kuleana Hawaiʻi Grown Sunflower Oil, and can include recipes from Hawaiian Electric’s “The Electric Kitchen” recipe collection on the company’s website.

Pacific Biodiesel reminds the community to recycle – not discard down the drain – household used cooking oil leftover from holiday meal preparation. Locations that accept household used cooking oil are listed on biodiesel.com.

Pacific Biodiesel recycles used cooking oil for its local biodiesel production. The company, which marks its 30th anniversary this year, annually produces nearly 6 million gallons of biodiesel and has been Hawaiʻi’s only commercial producer of liquid biofuel for three decades.

Pacific Biodiesel has been supplying biodiesel for Hawaiian Electric since 2003. In June, Pacific Biodiesel made its first delivery of biodiesel produced solely with sunflower oil from the company’s expanded agriculture operations on Kauaʻi. A tanker with 6,500 gallons of biodiesel, a 100% renewable fuel produced at the company’s refinery on Hawaiʻi Island, was delivered to Hawaiian Electric for its 50-megawatt Schofield Generating Station on O’ahu.

Hawaiian Electric will randomly select five prize winners from all qualified “Kākou for the Holidays” Recipe Contest entrants. Winners will each receive a Hawaiian Electric tumbler and a bottled set of 8.5 oz Kuleana Hawaiʻi Grown Sunflower Oil and Macadamia Oil.

Visit the Hawaiian Electric or Pacific Biodiesel websites for information about the contest or to learn how to support local food banks this holiday season.