Owners of Maui restaurant spent weeks in West Maui feeding thousands for free

NAPILI (HawaiiNewsNow) - They are no strangers to serving their community. But Cristina and Devin Pagaduan are doing it a little differently nowadays.

“He was a police officer, and I was a teacher,” said Cristina.

Cristina and Devin, owners of Pastele House Maui, were out at Napili Park for nearly five weeks doing what they do best – serving their community.

“All these people lost everything they had,” Devin said. “And that’s one thing that we can do. We have everything. We have our house. We have our business. We can cook, and people out here need hot food.”

For the Pagaduans, it was a no-brainer. They were able to get an escort out to West Maui just a few days after the disastrous Aug. 8 wildfires.

“It’s important for us to do our part,” Cristina said. “I mean, what better way than to cook like we normally do? Makes us feel really good. We have four kids at home. So, it’s important for them to see that you can give back even if it’s something small, something big, anything.”

Pastele House Maui provided free, hot, home-cooked meals for the entire West Maui community for 35 days straight.

Plus, they hosted a luau to thank the volunteers from World Central Kitchen – an emergency food relief team – who travel worldwide to provide meals to communities in crisis.

“About 140,000 mouths they fed,” Devin said. “It’s actually an honor to help out the people that help people out.”

The Pagaduans are finally back to work around Wailuku or Kahului, still serving great food for their community, and they promise to be back in West Maui soon.

Copyright 2023 Hawaii News Now. All rights reserved.