PS&D NAPA Donates $25,000 To Hawaii Foodbank Kauai

2020 marked 50 years in business for Kauai’s Pacific Service and Development (PS&D), a group of four NAPA AUTO PARTS stores and an AutoCare Center owned by Todd Bruns. While Bruns originally had big plans to celebrate the milestone, the pandemic changed all that. Instead, he set a goal to donate 50,000 meals to the Hawaii Foodbank Kauai branch and he made a personal donation of $25,000 to get things started.

“We planned all along to make this anniversary year special and we decided the best way to say thanks in 2020 is to give back,” said Bruns. “It’s not about us, it’s about our community.”

Customers were encouraged to bring non-perishable food items or a monetary donation to any of PS&D’s locations. To encourage a little friendly competition in his stores Bruns offered prizes to the top 10 employees bringing in the most food.

Kauai NAPA Exceeds Goal of 50,000 Meals

Between the cartons of food and the monetary donation, Bruns and the employees of PS&D exceeded their goal, providing well over their original target of 50,000 meals.

Chyenne Beach, Community Development Specialist Hawaii Foodbank Kauai explained, “Through its membership to Feeding America, the Nation’s network of food banks, the Hawaii Foodbank Kauai can turn $10 into 25 meals. A donation of $25,000 will supply 62,500 meals and help sustain thousands of families who receive emergency food.”

During the COVID-19 pandemic, a record number of people in Hawaii are unemployed. And the approval by Governor David Ige of Mayor Derek Kawakami’s request to opt out of the state’s Safe Travels testing program aggravated the problem when several resorts announced closures after only recently reopening.

Beach said, “Since the start of the pandemic in March 2020, Hawaii Foodbank Kauai has seen a 75% increase in emergency food distribution—from 1,060,382 pounds in fiscal year 2019 to a whopping 1,870,229 pounds in fiscal year 2020.”

The food bank’s inventory has been down recently. The Kauai warehouse is usually stocked with 14-18 day’s worth of food, but that has been reduced to a 7-8 day supply in the last month. Even so, they are in no danger of being unable to serve the community according to Beach.

The donation from Bruns and his NAPA stores is helping. “Thank you so much for doing this for the food bank. It will go a long way,” said Beach.

PS&D Donates Masks for Healthcare Workers

Last spring, PS&D and Bruns joined the fight against COVID-19 and donated 10,000 masks to the healthcare community. “We covered the main hospitals, including Wilcox Health, the Kaua‘i Veterans Memorial Hospital and the Samuel Mahelona Memorial Hospital. We also dropped off supplies at the care homes, including Hale Kupuna, the Garden Island Day Health and Bayada Home Care. We even had a thousand we could leave at the county’s Emergency Operating Center,” said Bruns. “It’s something we wanted to do for the community.”

NAPA Hawaii Donates $5,000 to Lex Brodie’s Tire Company Foundation

This is the 6th year in a row that NAPA Auto Parts Hawaii has made a donation to Lex Brodie’s Tire Company Foundation. The Foundation honors Mr. Brodie’s legacy of service and leadership by proudly supporting keiki programs (children’s programs) that help drive future leaders to success.

The Foundation may be most recognized for the Thank You … Very Much! Award, named after the company’s recognizable tagline. The program invites fourth-through-12th-grade students to submit a thank-you letter to someone who has impacted their lives, recognizing one winning student-writer per month. The Foundation also supports the Boy Scouts, Read Aloud America, and various other programs that support and encourage Hawaii’s youth.

“Supporting youth programs that help to develop our future leaders has been a focus of NAPA Hawaii for many years,” said Darryl Turner, NAPA Hawaii General Manager. “It’s been a challenging year for all of us, but our hope is that this donation will help Lex Brodie’s Tire Company Foundation continue their mission to shine the spotlight on Hawaii’s youth.”