Palolo Chinese home has nearly doubled its nursing bed capacity with the opening of a new wing.
It was a project that the community had supported for many years which explains the large crowd that was on hand today for the opening of the new wing.
Darryl Ing says, "We're really excited that we're able to complete phase two of our campus re-development program and that's the building of a three story structure that's going to add 46 nursing home beds to help the shortage of our state."
In addition to the added beds, the new wing boasts a kitchen that is a far cry from its predecessor. "We have a brand new state of the art kitchen. It's six times larger than the tiny little kitchen that we have in farm hall, where we have our old woks that we cook, everything from rice to soup to main course," said Ing.
The kitchen will be well-used. In addition to feeding the 111 nursing home clients here, it will also be used to feed those in adult day care and provide for meals on wheels. As we said, the community has offered solid support to build the addition and other improvements. "Total cost is $18 million. And we're really, really fortunate to have support from many groups including the state of Hawaii through their grants in aid program."
Along with foundation help, the city and county of Honolulu through their Community Development Block Grants provided three million dollars.
Mayor Mufi Hannemann says, "And in these tough economic times, more than ever, we have to ensure that whatever government moneys we pass on, that it's going to go to an organization that's going to use it wisely, effectively."
The state also provided 1.6 million in grants in aid.
"I believe there is nothing more important than caring for our kupuna. They represent not only where we come from but also the direction that we are going," said Lt. Gov. Duke Aiona.
