Tradition of Thanksgiving community meals continues with third ownership of Kona restaurant

Paul Streiter and Angela Rey, who founded the Kona restaurant Jackie Rey’s in 2004, started a tradition of providing Thanksgiving meals to the community.

In 2023, Chad Atkinson bought the eatery from the couple. While not in the official contract of sale, Atkinson said there was a handshake agreement between them that he would continue the tradition.

When Atkinson sold the restaurant in August, he also asked the new owners, Duane Otte and Matt Mather, to keep the dinner going. And, they are.

For the 11th year on Thursday, the restaurant will cook up Thanksgiving meals for the community in partnership with the Salvation Army and 60 volunteers.

“We seem to have the same values,” Atkinson said, adding the dinners don’t happen without the volunteers. “It’s community helping community.”

At Jackie Reyʻs, the preparation and cooking begins tomorrow for 800 meals, with 480 of them to be hand-delivered to kūpuna and shut-ins in the community.

Salvation Army Capt. Shawn Keoho said the restaurant’s commitment to continue serving meals on Thanksgiving Day is appreciated.

“I’m just so overwhelmed, and it just really touches my heart that (the new owners) would buy this and want to continue this,” Keoho said.

The restaurant used to host sit-down meals on Thanksgiving Day. But after the COVID-19 pandemic struck in 2020, Jacky Rey’s switched to making the dinners and passing them out through a grab-and-go style, with boxes that can be picked up at their restaurant, located at 75-5995 Kuakini Highway.

Community members can pick up meals starting at 9:30 a.m. on Thursday. Come early, because food typically runs out within one to two hours of opening the pickup window.

The Salvation Army also will be participating in two other Thanksgiving community meal events on the Big Island: one in Hilo and the other in Waimea.

Jackie Rey’s new general manager, Tawny Hanakeawe, said it was important to continue this holiday tradition, adding the restaurant is already maxed out with the 60 volunteers.

For the past nine years, Jackie Rey’s chef Jeric Genavia has been helping put the Thanksgiving meals together. This year, he said the restaurant is preparing at least eight to nine hotel pans of turkey, which can hold 15 to 25 pounds of meat.

Genavia works with all the volunteers on Tuesday and Wednesday, instructing them on how to cut vegetables, prep potatoes and open cans of cranberries.

On Thanksgiving Day, Genavia said volunteers come in at around 6:30 or 7 a.m., starting the day with coffee and a thank you. From there, they get organized into teams of boxing the food and get food ready for delivery.

“Keeping up on this tradition as a chef, it’s just a great feeling,” Genavia said. “It’s such a great atmosphere. Everyone wants to serve the community.”

Volunteering to deliver meals on Thanksgiving is also a long-standing tradition for Nancy Swartz, who began doing so with the Salvation Army in 1997.

Swartz, now 77, remembers a woman coming to the nonprofit’s location on Kalani Street in Kona to make the dinners with all the traditional fixings of turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, and, of course, pie.

“I remember people walking up the hill with plates in their hands, eating all around the Salvation Army,” Swartz said.

She will be at Jackie Rey’s to once again help on Thanksgiving. She has been delivering meals with the help of her daughters since they were around the age of 5 years old. She said she always gets a great amount of joy doing the deliveries.

Swartz said: “Last year, I had one of the kūpuna tell me: ‘I wouldn’t have had Thanksgiving if it wasn’t for you.'”