Bank of Hawaii Announces Free ‘Bankoh Meals-To-Go’ for Employees to Share It Forward

Throughout the month of May, Bank of Hawaii is offering its 1,700 Oahu employees family-style meals, once a week, and free of charge. The “Bankoh-Meals-To-Go” program launched on May 4 and provides pre-packaged meals that serves two to four people and includes a main dish, starch and vegetables. Employees not in need are encouraged to “share it forward” by donating their meals to extended family members, neighbors, kūpuna or friends experiencing food insecurity. Meals not utilized by employees are being donated to Aloha Harvest; in the first week of the program, this totaled nearly 670 pounds of food.

“Our residents, nonprofits, and small businesses are all feeling the strain of the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Peter Ho, chairman, president and CEO of Bank of Hawaii. “By opening up our kitchens and providing ‘Bankoh Meals-To-Go,’ we not only help put food on the table for our employees and their ‘ohana, but also offer food relief through home-cooked meals that are dispersed throughout our community.”

To prepare the meals, Bank of Hawaii activated its two Café Blue kitchen facilities (downtown Honolulu and Kapolei) and as well as staff from Elite Catering & Hospitality Services. The bank is supporting small businesses by purchasing its food from local suppliers. For the first week alone, Bank of Hawaii purchased 3,200 pounds of produce, protein and seasonings to cook teriyaki chicken, rice and broccoli.

Each week, Bank of Hawaii will be supporting local restaurants on the neighbor islands and in the West Pacific region by purchasing 350 meals for bank employees.