Employees donate rice for local food banks; holiday recipe contest celebrates cooking with local ingredients
HONOLULU, Nov. 18, 2025 – Hawaiian Electric and Pacific Biodiesel are teaming up for the holidays to support local food banks and encourage local ingredients for holiday recipes. The collaboration – Kākou for the Holidays – includes a rice drive and a holiday recipe contest.
“We’re collaborating with Pacific Biodiesel over the holidays to celebrate our ongoing partnership of using their locally sourced biofuel for our electric grid,” said Mike DeCaprio, vice president of power supply for Hawaiian Electric. “Kākou for the Holidays is a way for us to come together to support our communities and honor our companies working together for clean energy in Hawai‘i.”
Employees of both companies are participating in a rice drive to collect bags and boxes of rice for donation to food banks on each island. One of the most requested items at food banks, rice is a staple for local families that can be easily distributed to individual folks across Hawaiʻi for their holiday meals.
“During our first holiday rice drive last year, Pacific Biodiesel employees donated nearly 600 pounds rice for local food banks. This holiday season, Hawaiian Electric’s 2,500 employees are joining us in collecting bags and boxes of rice for donation to Hawaiʻi’s food banks,” said Pacific Biodiesel Director of Operations Jenna Long. “The holiday season is a critical time for food banks, and the government shutdown has increased food needs across our communities. We’re honored to partner with Hawaiian Electric to support local food banks and we encourage folks to consider donating to the food banks now more than ever.”
Additionally, Pacific Biodiesel founders Bob and Kelly King will be donating to each island’s food bank a supply of their company’s new Kuleana® Hawaiʻi Grown Sunflower Oil – produced from the sunflowers Pacific Biodiesel farms on Kauaʻi and Maui.
The Holiday Recipe Contest launches today and runs through Dec. 15. Recipes must be prepared with local ingredients, such as Kuleana® Hawaiʻi Grown Sunflower Oil, and can include recipes from Hawaiian Electric’s “The Electric Kitchen” recipe collection on the company’s website.
Pacific Biodiesel reminds the community to recycle (not discard down the drain) household used cooking oil leftover from holiday meal preparation. Locations that accept household used cooking oil are listed on www.biodiesel.com.
Pacific Biodiesel recycles used cooking oil for its local biodiesel production. The company, which marks its 30th anniversary this year, annually produces nearly 6 million gallons of biodiesel and has been Hawaiʻi’s only commercial producer of liquid biofuel for three decades.
Pacific Biodiesel has been supplying biodiesel for Hawaiian Electric since 2003. In June, Pacific Biodiesel made its first delivery of biodiesel produced solely with sunflower oil from the company’s expanded agriculture operations on Kauaʻi. A tanker with 6,500 gallons of biodiesel, a 100% renewable fuel produced at the company’s refinery on Hawaiʻi Island, was delivered to Hawaiian Electric for its 50-megawatt Schofield Generating Station on O’ahu.
Hawaiian Electric will randomly select five prize winners from all qualified “Kākou for the Holidays” Recipe Contest entrants. Winners will each receive a Hawaiian Electric tumbler and a bottled set of 8.5 oz Kuleana® Hawaiʻi Grown Sunflower Oil and Macadamia Oil. For information about the contest or to learn how you can support Hawaii’s food banks this holiday season, click here. To learn more about Kuleana Hawaiʻi Grown culinary oils, visit www.KuleanaHawaiiOils.com.
About Pacific Biodiesel
Founded on Maui in 1995, Pacific Biodiesel is the longest operating biodiesel producer in the USA and has been the only commercial producer of liquid biofuels in Hawaiʻi for three decades. With 100 employees statewide, the company recycles used cooking oil from restaurants statewide to annually produce nearly 6 million gallons of distilled biodiesel at its refinery on Hawaiʻi Island. With its expansion of agriculture operations to Kaua’i, the company is farming sunflowers and other crops – demonstrating a model of regenerative agriculture and renewable energy that enhances energy security, bolsters food security, and supports Hawaiʻi’s circular economy. Kuleana® Hawaiʻi Grown culinary oils are produced by Maiden Hawaii Naturals, LLC, a company created by the founders of Pacific Biodiesel, Bob and Kelly King.
About Hawaiian Electric
Hawaiian Electric serves 95 percent of Hawaiʻi’s 1.4 million residents on the islands of Oʻahu, Maui, Hawaiʻi, Lānaʻi and Molokaʻi. Established in 1891, Hawaiian Electric is committed to empowering its customers and communities by providing safe, reliable and sustainable energy.
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CONTACT:
PACIFIC BIODIESEL:
Joy Galatro
Marketing Director
Pacific Biodiesel Technologies, LLC
808-866-5104
