Kudos to Central Middle School and to Servco Pacific for their work to help the Pacific Islander students on campus with a practical assist: household appliances. Servco donated refrigerators, ranges, microwaves and washer-dryer units to outfit the school’s new Takai Transition Center. It’s a place where families in transition to Hawaii can meet some basic needs they can’t afford. This is crucial aid, but a sad reminder of how much schools must do to soften the edge of poverty in their community.

Tracking garbage on the high seas

It’s encouraging to see satellite tracking technology being tapped to quickly pinpoint the whereabouts of debris clumps — fishing nets, plastic floats, bottles and other rubbish — in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. A ship sent to the patch by The Ocean Voyages Institute, a nonprofit based in Sausalito, Calif., docked in Honolulu Tuesday with 40 tons, which included an 8-ton ball of nets and ropes. The haul was significantly larger than those collected in previous voyages due largely to tracker and drone guidance in the gyre, situated between Hawaii and California, which last year was described as at least twice as large as Texas.