KAHANA — Angel Tamayo wasn’t sure how to fill her days after her Wahikuli home and business burned down.

Walking around the Kahana area last week, she spotted a distribution center that had recently opened to supply displaced residents with food and home goods. Tamayo asked what she could do to help.

“I’d rather be working and not be all depressed and sad,” she said Friday during a blessing and official opening for the Kahana center, where she’s been handing out supplies.

“It’s nice to see familiar faces too. It kind of makes you forget that everything did happen. Kind of feels like almost normal, just working.”

The distribution site at the Kahana Gateway Shopping Center is serving as the new supply hub for West Maui as the Lahaina Gateway, the previous distribution hub, reopens for business with disaster restrictions lifted.

More than a month after the deadly Aug. 8 wildfires that leveled Lahaina town and destroyed multiple homes Upcountry, distribution centers across the island are still going strong. Shelves and floor space at the West, Central and Upcountry Maui sites are stocked full of donations — cans of Spam, bags of rice, boxes of cereal. Fancy Feast and Iams pet food are available in bulk. Tubs overflow with rolls of toilet paper. Diapers are stacked and in some places sorted by infant size.

“It’s been the worst situation but at the same time I’ve never seen a community like this,” said Kris Musto, one of the founders of Upcountry Strong, which runs a distribution site at the Pukalani

Terrace Shopping Center. “Maui is special. Hawaii is special. And it’s something you can’t explain until you’re living it.”

Leaning against a pallet of peanut butter jars from the Maui Food Bank, Musto explained how Upcountry Strong, which began as an effort to help the community during the COVID-19 pandemic, quickly pivoted to a fire relief hub.

“After the fires happened, the phone just started ringing,” Musto said. “I guess it’s just we’ve built kind of a trust with the community. … They knew us to be the ones who kind of, when we got stuff, we went directly to the community. So rather than worrying about any red tape … they just were like, ‘Can we get you stuff and can you start to get it out? Cause that’s what you guys do.'”

The initial days were “all a blur.” For a week and a half, they operated out of their homes, which quickly filled with supplies. It seemed like they couldn’t get things out fast enough, Musto said. Then they found a space in Pukalani that the landlord offered to them free for three months. Musto said they are trying to see if they can use the site until Christmas but are looking for a more permanent location in the meantime.

Upcountry Strong, which was founded by Musto, Claudia Garcia, Francis Kamakaokalani and Megan Nakashima, has been a nonprofit since 2020. Musto said they’d always hoped it would become a more permanent food pantry.

She said the biggest need since the fires has been water, especially Upcountry where officials warned against drinking from the fire-damaged system. While she’s started to see supplies decline after the initial rush, Musto said somehow, they always find more. Once it was Sysco calling to bring by water. Another time it was Walmart supplying 15 cases of reusable bags within an hour of their request. Random community groups have stepped in to help, and Musto said “we’ll work with anybody” to get supplies to the public.

The site is open from 2 to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday and 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday.

State and Maui County officials say the distribution hubs will be around as long as they’re needed. Lt. Gov. Sylvia Luke said Friday during a tour of the sites that, “at some point in time, both philanthropic and federal government will leave, and the community will be left with the county and the state trying to take care of each other and take care of the needs of the residents of Maui County.”

“The fact that we have hubs that are established on a semi-permanent basis … as long as the community needs it, this is a great thing, because it provides consistency, it provides security, it provides an avenue for people to go and people are familiar and they know they can count on,” she said.

Maui County Mayor Richard Bissen said that the county can provide help with rent if needed to keep the hubs going, as well as send employees to volunteer or work with organizations to provide more supplies.

“We really have to gauge how the community is doing,” he said. “The economy is obviously impacted which impacts people’s jobs and the ability to buy necessities. We’ll have to see what happens once they can really get back to work or stabilize their housing.”

Bissen added that “we believe that most of the response is community led and county or government supported, which is how it is in most cases and that’s how it should be.”

Food and supplies at the sites come from several resources: donations from around the nation and world, Hawaii and Maui Food Banks, Sysco, Costco and Hawaii Food Service Alliance, Maui County spokeswoman Mahina Martin said. The county also purchased some of the food and supplies, usually at a reduced cost from partners and suppliers.

In Kahana, Global Empowerment Mission and the county partnered with Maui Brewing Co., which donated the 6,000-square-foot building for the distribution sitea. Local contractors assisted in the renovation and GEM fronted the additional cost for renovation and staffing, Martin said.

The site is open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, with walk-up meals available at lunch and dinner. Feed My Sheep also holds a drive-thru distribution from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Thursdays. Michael Capponi, founder and president of GEM, said he also hopes to expand services to help with rent abatement and temporary housing.

Maui Meadows resident Louise Ventura, mother of Maui Fire Chief Brad Ventura, volunteered at the long-running Lahaina Gateway hub and moved over to the new Kahana hub on Friday. She said “volunteering is dropping big time.” A month ago, about 75 people came to the Lahaina Gateway. Last week it had declined to 25 and on Friday it was down to two. She encouraged people to seek out areas with the greatest need and to contact the county or other organizations on how to help. She signed up for the Kahana hub through Facebook.

Ventura said when she sees the devastation, “I want to start to cry.”

“It’s overwhelming,” she said. “And even though you’ve seen it on the news 100 times, 1,000 times, it’s hard to imagine.”

Aug. 8 is also surreal for Tamayo. Every time she passes by her burned-down neighborhood, “you don’t want to believe it almost,” she said. Tamayo not only lost her home but also her uncle, who was unable to escape the fire but told his wife to get to safety. His wife jumped over the rock wall along Front Street and survived.

Tamayo said it was hard at first to accept help. She and her boyfriend, who ran CXA Workshop in Lahaina, are used to working and providing for themselves, and “it’s almost like we were ashamed, too, to get stuff.” But, she’s been grateful for the support. In addition to giving her a place to work, she said GEM helped her boyfriend and other trades workers buy tools to replace ones they’d lost in the fire.

“It’s hard trying to get back on your feet,” Tamayo said. “So it helps having a place to come and get supplies instead of having to use your own money.”

Even as she grieves her losses, she said, “we just have to move forward from here.”

* Managing Editor Colleen Uechi can be reached at cuechi@mauinews.com.