Julie Mitchell, Kuʻikahi Mediation Center executive director, with Jennifer Zelko-Schlueter, Hawaiian Electric director of government & community affairs on Hawaiʻi Island. (Photo courtesy of Hawaiian Electric)Students in the culinary garden at Waimea Middle School. (Photo courtesy of Mālaʻai)
Focused on improving the quality of life of vulnerable community members, Hawaiian Electric has donated a total of $75,500 to seven Hawaiʻi nonprofits that provide social services, including two on the Big Island.
The organizations on the Big Island that were awarded funds are:
Kuʻikahi Mediation Center, the sole nonprofit mediation center serving East Hawaiʻi, will use the donation to help clients — more than half who live below the poverty line and might have difficulty navigating the legal system — resolve interpersonal conflicts and community issues through low-cost or free mediation services as an alternative to costly litigation.
Mālaʻai will use the funds to support its culinary garden at Waimea Middle School, which provides hands-on, food-based education in an outdoor living laboratory and cultivates connections between people, land, food and culture. Crops are harvested and shared with Waimea community members, teachers, administrators and students, many who live at or near the poverty level, which enhances food security for those in need.
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