#Lahaina Baptist Church

This festive season brought blessings to 14 spiritual centers affected by the 2023 fires in Lahaina, as Lele Aloha, a 501(c)(3) organization founded by renowned waterman Archie Kalepa, announced a generous donation totaling $240,000.

More than 200 community members joined with faith leaders from 13 Lahaina churches to offer prayers during a gathering Thursday in observance of the six-month mark after the Lahaina fire.

Since mid-March, when the Covid-19 pandemic led to an abrupt shutdown of Maui’s tourism economy, emergency food distribution sites have sprung up at more than 30 locations around the island, and on Molokaʻi and Lanai. While residents’ needs for food has ebbed and flowed based on government assistance availability, it hasn’t gone away. Far from it. Maui County’s unemployment remains the highest in Hawaiʻi – and among the highest around the country – at 20.7 percent. The emergency food giveaways continue.

Executive sous chef Meredith Manee and sous chef April Matsumoto’s used to cook for guests at the Ritz-Carlton in Kapalua. Now they and others unemployed due to COVID-19 use their culinary skills to cook a weekly full-course meal for the homeless as part of Maui Rescue Mission’s outreach at Lahaina Baptist Church.