Thousands of Maui residents and families lost their jobs due to the COVID-19 pandemic, including access to nutritious meals.

Gary Marks knew he had to do something quick. 

A few conversations and idea pitches later, Marks and his family launched the nonprofit We Love Hawaii Food Project to provide free and healthy food options to households where one or both parents have become unemployed due to the coronavirus.

“It’s just been a beautiful experience all the way through,” Marks said in a phone interview Sunday night. “The beautiful thing is, these people were leaving the store crying, they were so happy, so grateful. A lot of them never shopped at a natural food store before too.”

Through a partnership with Hawaiian Moons, a small natural food store on 2411 South Kihei Road, We Love Hawaii Food Project offers families $100 to $150 credit to be spent at the store on nutritious grocery items.

About four to five people shop a day through the program.

“You can go and buy anything you want out of the five food groups,” he said. “Food you can sit down at a table as a family and just eat a nice dinner.”

Most clients have been from South Maui, but a few residents from Kahului, Wailuku and Lahaina have shopped at the store, said Marks, a longtime Maui resident, father, singer-songwriter, recording artist and published author.

When the program started, most of the beneficiaries were from the food and hospitality industry when restaurants and hotels shut down, Marks said. 

Phil Reider, one of the three owners of Hawaiian Moons and who has known Marks for over 25 years, said he could go “on and on about how amazing the Marks family is” and how the program is “really having a positive effect on the community.”

“Obviously, it’s generating business for us, but most importantly the families and the children have been wonderful,” Reider said in a phone interview Sunday night. “The people we’re helping are just so grateful, so everybody wins.” 

Reider said that Hawaiian Moons never closed during the pandemic, saying “we’ve adapted and done what was necessary to serve the public.”

“It hasn’t been easy for any business in the state,” he said. “I’m glad the island is back open, slowly but surely.” 

The idea for We Love Hawaii began during a conversation around Marks’ dinner table a few months ago about the impacts of COVID-19 on the community. Then while driving past local churches and seeing the long lines for food, he knew what he had to do.

The program was officially launched on Marks’ birthday, Aug. 29, and has helped feed about 200 recently unemployed people since with the help of volunteers and his family. Marks said he donated $5,000 out of pocket and two friends matched donations to give We Love Hawaii some momentum. Then his daughter, Skylar, built the website.

We Love Hawaii received its nonprofit status through Embracing The World, a global network of charitable projects that also donated to the program.

While the main offering is store credit at Hawaiian Moons, Marks said that his son Shawn, a student at Kihei Charter High School, has delivered groceries from Hawaiian Moons to people’s homes if transportation was not available.

Marks said that, so far, it has been “the sweetest experience” working with store co-owners Reider, Kristyn and Tim Ewing, and the volunteers, as well as helping Maui residents.

More donations are needed. The program will continue until all donated money is spent, and there’s about $11,000 left, which can serve about 100 more families, he said.

“The key to this whole thing is that I wanted people to know that neighbors care about them,” he said. “Neighbors can help, we’re in this together. We really wanted to make it a really happy joyous experience.” 

Anyone who has lost their job due to COVID-19 and in need of assistance can fill out a form online at welovehawaii.org. Donations can also be made on the website. 

We Love Hawaii is working to expand services by partnering with local food stores on other islands.

Kaitlyn Keiko Miller, who has helped with We Love Hawaii’s social media content, said in an email last week that “people are hurting at this time, but the actions of this family have given me hope, that we will make it through this time as a community, aided by the compassion of others.”

Miller helped start a Go Fund Me page to raise money for the food credit to spend at chosen grocery stores.

“So far the project has served unemployed families from the local hotel workers union in Maui, and unemployed families of children who go to the local schools,” according to the Go Fund Me page. “Our plan is to greatly expand the number of families we are able to help.”

For more information, to donate or to sign up for services, visit the project’s website designed by Skylar at welovehawaii.org. Inquiries can be emailed to wlhfoodproject@gmail.com. 

Follow the project on Instagram or Facebook at wlh_foodproject.

To donate, go to the Go Fund Me page at https://gf.me/u/y2m5k8. 

* Dakota Grossman can be reached at dgrossman@mauinews.com.