HANAPEPE — There were more than 900 pumpkins for keiki and families on Saturday during the Harvest Festival that, for this year, was held at the Hanapepe Athletic Field, adjacent to the Hanapepe Stadium.
Keiki and families had the opportunity of rummaging through the field of orange orbs protected by a large open tent in search of that perfect candidate for the Halloween jack-o-lantern through the courtesy of Aloun Farms, Corteva Agriscience, the Kekaha Agriculture Association, the Hawaii Tourism Authority, and numerous other community sponsors.
Laurie Yoshida of Corteva Agriscience offering guests free vegetable starters for home gardens, said Saturday’s distribution was only part of the 2025 fall season distribution.
Families who missed out on the Saturday Harvest Festival will have an opportunity for more free pumpkins that will be distributed this week — a kind of last chance for free pumpkins before Halloween — at the Pau Hana Market in Lihue, the Kauai Culinary Market at The Shops at Kukuiula on Wednesday, and The Grove Farm Market in Puhi on Saturday.
Starting today, free pumpkins will be available at the Pau Hana Market, a collaboration between the Kukui Grove Center and the Kauai County Farm Bureau. Distributed at a rate of one pumpkin per child while supplies last, the pumpkins will be available from 3 p.m.
On Wednesday, pumpkins will be available from 4 to 6 p.m., or while supplies last, at the Palm Court area of The Shops at Kukuiula where the Kauai Culinary Market, another of the Kauai Farm Bureau collaborations, will be in full swing.
The Wescon Region Pop Warner Little Scholars program volunteers will be helping Grove Farm on Saturday morning, when even more pumpkins will be given away from 9 a.m. during the weekly Grove Farm Market farmers market.
The Hawaii Foodbank Kauai mobile food pantry was pretty bare within the first two hours of the festival opening with participation from the West Kauai Medical Center. Combined with the line of people registering with the Hawaii Foodbank Kauai, the situation demonstrates the need for food in the face of the partial government shutdown and the recent announcements of cutbacks in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits.
Other community vendors including Ke Kula Niihau school, the Rotary Club of West Kauai, the West Kauai Methodist Church and others started showing signs of a slowdown in food demand for lunch as the Harvest Festival wound down its stage programming mode to carnival mode so fans could enjoy the announcements of next-door Hanapepe Stadium and the Kauai Interscholastic Federation football game that was Kauai High School’s Senior Night.
Source: The Garden Island
Be First to Comment