The most popular items that come out of Lanakila Kitchen are the blueberry scones, which sell at the rate of about 1,000 per week. They have a lemon glaze, which requires 40 pounds of lemons weekly, just for the zest.
The juice from all those lemons is destined for other things.
“The rest of the lemon, we freeze it and try to use it,” said Reid Yasunaga, director of food service. It may become lemon chicken, lemon butterfish or something else to make a meal for the needy.
And that’s our story in a nutshell: Lanakila Kitchen is an up-and-comer in the local scone-baking industry, yet remains the stalwart supplier of Meals on Wheels and committed to its mission of providing job training and employment for individuals with disabilities.
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Lanakila’s foray into commercial baking began several years ago when the kitchen started supplying Times Supermarket. Sales got up to about 400 scones per week.
Then in November of 2018, Lanakila got into Don Quijote stores, a deal Yasunaga initiated through an advanced corporate communication channel — the “contact us” page on the chain’s website.
Sales have been solid ever since, despite the pandemic. Yasunaga said about 2,000 scones in several flavors go to Don Quijote weekly, along with pumpkin crunch, lilikoi-cream cheese bars and cookies.
Bonus: The Lanakila products are often displayed near the front, which has helped with branding and drawn new accounts: Aloha Island Marts, for example, take about 400 scones weekly, dividing them among many of their gas station stores. The Arizona Memorial was selling about 300 scones each week, before COVID-19.
“Don Quijote helped us, really opened the door,” Yasunaga said.
Besides blueberry, Lanakila scones come in flavors such as cranberry-orange, banana- walnut, lilikoi-peach, azuki (made for Marukai Wholesale Mart) and a gluten-free blueberry made with rice flour. The newest is kalo, made with local taro.
On the scone spectrum — cakelike on one end and denser, more biscuitlike on the other — these scones lean toward the former, soft, moist and tall, not flat. Yasunaga said hand-mixing is crucial. “We can’t use a machine because it flattens the scones.”
At Don Quijote the scones sell by the pair for just $3.79, a tough price to beat.
Revenue of about $350,000 annually goes back into the program, basically covering costs, Yasunaga said, including salaries for 29 kitchen staffers, 14 of them “EDD,” Employed with Diagnosed Disability. Receiving full benefits and pay, they work in Lanakila’s commercial kitchen, preparing baked goods and 8,100 food trays per week for Meals on Wheels.
The kitchen also takes on catering jobs, and at Thanksgiving made 95 dinners to go — a massive 25-pound turkey and fixings for $120 (most turkey dinners come with birds half that size). “These buggas were huge,” Yasunaga said. Another 50 orders were filled for half birds. All the turkeys sold out in six days, with some dinners purchased by Lanakila board members to donate to needy families.
Throughout the rough months of 2020, no one had to be furloughed or laid off, Yasunaga said. “That’s what I’m most proud of, in all of this. It allows us to fulfill our mission.”
LANAKILA TO GO
Lanakila Kitchen also sells breakfast and lunches through a takeout line attached to the kitchen. Plates generally go for $6 to $9. Examples: kalbi and meat jun, availa ble today, garlic chicken on Thursday, and braised beef on Friday. The dishes allow the cooks to work outside the nutritional strictures of Meals on Wheels. On occasional Fridays they’ll even do a $12 prime-rib plate. Surplus baked goods are also sold there at a discount.
The operation is open weekdays, 6:30 to 8:30 a.m. for breakfast, 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. for lunch, at 1809 Bachelot St. in Liliha. Email LanakilaKitchen@ lanakilapacific.org to receive a daily update on the menu. Call Call 533-3054.
EVERYTHING GREAT
My discovery of Lanakila Kitchen baked goods began with the Everything Cookie, a thin, crisp disc of deliciousness that is going to foil my diet ambitions in 2021.
The cookie is Lanakila’s newest item, in stores about six months. It originated on the catering menu; the recipe was a collaboration of several minds in the kitchen, said Reid Yasunaga, director of food service.
He won’t spell out exactly what “everything” means, but an examination of the cookie (and I’ve had many) reveals oatmeal, chocolate chips, coconut flakes and nuts (probably walnut).
Lead baker Wilma Carter allows that it has brown and white sugar; Yasunaga allows that there’s lots of butter.
Find the cookies at Don Quijote, Marukai and some Aloha Island Marts. At Don Quijote, a package of 10 cookies sells for $5.39.
