Blog
Neighborhood Place of Puna to benefit from Ohana Fuels ‘Fuel up. Do good.’ program.
Keaʻau, Hawaiʻi – Neighborhood Place of Puna has been selected as the upcoming beneficiary of the Ohana Fuels ‘Fuel Up. Do Good’ program. Ohana Fuels partners with nonprofit organizations that serve the needs of the local community, and donates a portion of every gallon of gasoline purchased at all Ohana Fuels stations in that community.…
Read MoreGenerosity, Gratitude, and Lychee
In a community struggling with poverty – in which many people simply will not have enough money – the greatest wealth we can help people uncover is their self-value. Knowing that one’s life is valuable is a source of happiness. It gives meaning to our lives, no matter what those lives look like to others.…
Read MoreA Willingness to Help
Neighborhood Place of Puna tries not to turn anyone away. We primarily help families with underage children as well as pregnant and parenting teens. We run an emergency food pantry to help the hungry in our community. And we try to provide resources, referrals, and advocacy to those we cannot help directly. In March, we…
Read MoreThe Poverty Trap
As Americans, we are torn between two disparate images of poverty. One is the romantic poverty of Thoreau and Saint Francis, the holy poverty of simple lives. The other is vilified poverty, the poverty of the “welfare queen” and the “bum.” The holy poor live in stories and myth. The vilified poor live on the…
Read MoreMaking a Difference
In a rural community like Puna, physical isolation can be a hurdle to success and barrier to accessing even the most basic of resources. Housing is relatively cheap, but transportation is not. This forces individuals and families who are in poverty and lack financial resource—those who need the most support—to live where support is least…
Read MoreThe Work of Helping Families
A woman came to our office on a recent Friday afternoon. She had one of her sons with her and was on the verge of tears from the emotional strain of living in a car with her children. She had a voucher for subsidized housing and had found an apartment, but the apartment failed the…
Read MoreThe Insecurity of Poverty
Poverty is characterized by insecurity, instability, and stress. When a family does not have enough money to meet even the basic needs of housing, food, transportation, and medicine, they will, by necessity, go without at least one of these essentials for some period of time. A family in poverty will be homeless at some point.…
Read MoreSupporting East Hawaii Families
2014 has been a hard year for Puna families. In addition to the usual challenges of poverty, isolation, and transportation, Hurricane Iselle came ashore over Puna early in the morning of August 9th, felling trees, closing roads, and forcing many in Puna to live without power for days or weeks. Many of the families Neighborhood…
Read MorePracticing Hospitality
Hospitality, the willingness to offer shelter and food to strangers, is an ancient practice. It is a virtue praised in many religious traditions and an ethic that Neighborhood Place of Puna tries to embody. This ethic was tested late in the day, on the eve of the Veterans’ day holiday, when Neighborhood Place of Puna…
Read MoreThe Work of Honoring Each Person
Neighborhood Place of Puna services are built on relationships, relationships that deeply value each individual person. We help families who are trying to raise safe and healthy children. We provide emergency food assistance to families and individuals who are hungry. We are also helping individuals and families dealing with the impacts of Hurricane Iselle and…
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