Sunday Brunch in the Garden

In February of this year we hosted our first ever Sunday Brunch in the Garden. Māla‘ai was honored to partner with the Hawai`i chapter of Les Dames d’Escoffier(LDEI) to pull off this one-of-a-kind fundraiser.

Les Dames D’Escoffier is an international nonprofit committed to supporting women in their industries through education, mentorship and philanthropy. There are 44 chapters in the US, Mexico, Canada, United Kingdom, France and Italy. Their vision is to be the pre-eminent global professional association for women leaders in the food, beverage and hospitality industries. The Hawai`i chapter has a special love for school gardens and their members were the culinary masterminds behind this brunch.

Together we hosted over 30 guests who helped raise about $3000 which is being used to create “kitchen kits” for our culinary programming at Mālaʻai. These kitchen kits will have basic supplies like knives, vegetable peelers, measuring cups and spoons, mixing bowls, and more. This is an exciting way to organize our kitchen supplies and give students the responsibility of managing their specific kit and the tools inside.

Mahalo to the Dames of Hawai`i; Clare Bobo, Gabrielle Masur, Jileen Russell, Whendi Grad, Sharon Van Meter, Sandy Barr Rivera, Lezleigh Bignami. Without the support of LDEI we would have not been able to pull off such a successful and pleasant brunch. These women are amazing!

We’d also like to mahalo our Board Members Willie Quayle, Madeline Sofranac and their families for helping to set up our amazing brunch tent.

AʻOHE HANA NUI KE ALU ʻIA (No task is too big when done together by all) - Mahalo to all the hands that came to make this first brunch a success!

Please enjoy these stunning photos of our benefit brunch! Photo Credit: Isabella Robertson