Free food is reaching thousands of West Oahu families still recovering from Hurricane Lowell, a bright spot in a hard month for the Waianae coast.

• Cars lined up all day at the Waianae Boat Harbor for a food giveaway put together after the storm knocked out power for more than a day.
• Enough food came in to serve the 500 households that signed up and then some, feeding an estimated 3,000 people.
• The Hawaii Foodbank and the Waianae Coast Comprehensive Health Center supplied the goods, with volunteers doing much of the work.
• Residents said the help mattered after back-to-back disasters, with some caring for sick or elderly family members on top of the outage.

Outlook: Another distribution runs the next day from 10am to 1pm at the community learning center, with walk-ups welcome after 1pm.