[ JOHN WHITE / 1938-2003 ]
His fertile mind and firm
will birthed isle food bank
Pua Auyong-White jokes that her husband had three children: two sons and the Hawaii Foodbank.
"He was always driven by his work," she said yesterday in a telephone interview. "He understood why there was hunger, and it comes from his understanding of how agriculture works in this country."
John White, founder and former director of the food bank, died Dec. 19 at St. Francis Hospice-West after a long battle with Parkinson's disease. He was 69.
Foodbank President Dick Grimm called White a visionary. "That's the only word we can use," he said.
"It's sort of like when a developer looks at an empty lava lot and sees hotels. He saw the need in Hawaii to feed the needy, and he dedicated his entire life to doing that."
White, who was born in Iowa and grew up on a farm in Illinois, studied animal science at the University of Illinois before coming to Hawaii in the 1980s to pursue a political science graduate degree.
In 1983 he started the food bank with a donated truck and two refrigerated containers.
"He really thought it was a great idea, and it worked," said Pua Auyong-White, his wife of 27 years. "He wanted to do something that incorporated the components of recycling, reclamation and doing something great for people."
The nonprofit now distributes more than 8.5 million pounds of food annually to hundreds of charitable organizations across the islands, Grimm said. Each week, the food bank serves some 118,000 Hawaii residents.
"There are so many disparities in our society," Pua said. "His understanding and his commitment came from acknowledging there are these inequities."
But White not only understood the need for the food bank, he knew how it should be structured to be able to remain open and grow.
White helped set up a board of directors, composed of local business leaders who could help get word of the food bank out to the community. And as he formed the fledgling food bank, White helped push the Legislature to pass the "Good Samaritan" law, which protected donors from liability should their food make people sick.
"When I think about John, I think about how he set up the infrastructure of the food bank," Pua said. "It's very solid. Anybody can run the food bank. It carries itself."
Amy Agbayani, White's
longtime friend, said her neighbor for decades "understood the meaning of growing things and the importance of food" from his days on the family farm.
"He had a real strong sense of justice," she said, "and he understood that the food bank is only a little bit of the solution."
Yesterday, Pua was readying the yard for a spring planting in tribute to her husband, who was an avid gardener.
"He did a lot for a lot of people," she said, "which is a great legacy to have."
Besides his wife, White is survived by sons William and Andrew, and sisters Angela O'Neil and Eva Woods. Services will be held on the mainland.