Lanakila: More Than Meals On Wheels
CUSTOM PRODUCTS
Lanakila Pacific’s custom products team prints with a purpose and helps put finishing touches on creative pieces such as T-shirts for men, women and children; polo shirts; sweatshirts, athletic wear; medical wear and more. Best of all, each product that you buy ensures more meals and jobs for people in our community.
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Current staff in this collage of images old and new created by James Nakamura are (from left) Paul Harada, director of food services; Ben Brown, home delivery and volunteer supervisor; Shannon Carvalho, director of maintenance and production services; Marian Tsuji, president and CEO; Lori Lutu, director of Lanakila Teaching and Learning Centers, and Adam Beyer, custom products manager. Photo by Nathalie Walker | Archive Photos Courtesy Lanakila
An online design studio with templates (ranging from athletic to events/parties and trendy/fashionable) allows customers the freedom to create a unique piece for their personal or business needs. (Check it out at lanakilacustomproducts.com.)
The operation includes two manual and one automatic screen-printing presses at the warehouse on Bachelot Street, and orders can range from 12 items to 12,000.
“If you have a design, we can help to render it to a format we can use for printing,” says custom products manager Adam Beyer, who adds that custom products also include embroidery. “Our embroidery machine has been running nonstop for the past year and half … we just keep it going.”
Surf companies and athletics programs, as well as HGA and departments at the University of Hawaii, utilize Lanakila Pacific’s custom products division.
Lanakila Pacific’s custom products sector started as a way to create uniforms for in-house work, but since its inception two years ago, it has greatly expanded.
“Right now, I have trainees, and we’re 100 percent disability over there,” Beyer explains. “I’m really proud of them. They can get things done without supervision, and they just keep pumping out really quality products for the customers while being competitive against other silk screening and embroidery companies that are out there.”
MAINTENANCE
The Maintenance Services department within Lanakila Pacific serves state, government and commercial facilities in a cost-effective manner, and its mission is to look good and do good.
According to Shannon Carvalho, director of maintenance and production services, 19 grounds maintenance employees have large government and commercial contracts, while 17 staff and five trainees work on state and commercial contracts.
“Custodial (staff) does office cleaning for the most part,” explains Carvalho.
These custodial and maintenance workers are part of a program that has served the community for more than 25 years, and current clients include the Department of Health, Hickam Air Force Base, Ala Moana Health Center and Honolulu Fire Department Headquarters.
“It’s been really great to see trainees who come into the program and who are able to be placed in employment,” Carvalho continues. “The hope is that we can continue to be successful in doing that, in working with the trainees to teach them the skills they need.
“It’s building independence for them, and giving them a chance to get back into the workforce or start over.”
