Blog
The 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…
Read MoreThey Are All Our Responsibility
Wednesday was a holiday here in Hawaii. Having a friend visiting from the mainland we struck out for day of sun and fun on West side of the Island. As we pulled into a parking spot at the beach, we noticed a naked two year old girl wondering around the edge of the parking lot.…
Read MoreHelping Pregnant and Parenting Teens
Neighborhood Place of Puna is now providing intensive, ongoing, in-home, services to pregnant and parenting teens thanks to a grant from the Hawaii Children’s Trust Fund. NPP will help these teens connect to essential services, learn about pregnancy and parenting, and try to help the teen create a safe and nurturing environment for the baby.…
Read MoreHow Can I Help?
Yesterday I heard the heart breaking story of elementary school children filling their pockets with food from lunch at school on Fridays. This is at a school where over 90% of the children qualify for free or reduced lunch, which means that the vast majority of the students attending the school are living in poverty.…
Read More