UPDATE: May, 8, 2018, 10:38 a.m.

A website dedicated to answering questions, volunteering, making donations, lost and found pets, and links to other important resources/information has been created.

ORIGINAL POST: 8:18 a.m.

Emergency Disaster Services personnel and volunteers from The Salvation Army are responding to the current lava flow in Leilani Estates.

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The need continues for large-volume meal donations from local restaurants and certified kitchens (due to health safety food preparation standards) for meal service at shelters starting Wednesday, May 9, 2018. Meal service is covered until this date.

To donate large volume meals, local restaurants and certified kitchens may contact The Salvation Army at (808) 756-0306.

Smaller, home-prepared foods and meals cannot be accepted for meal service at shelters due to health safety food preparation standards.

“The Salvation Army’s EDS team in East Hawai‘i continues to provide assistance as needed with meal service, hydration, and emotional and spiritual care at the shelters in Pāhoa,” said Lt. Micheal Stack, Divisional Youth & Mens Ministry secretary and Emergency Disaster Services coordinator for The Salvation Army – Hawaiian & Pacific Islands Division. “We’re also grateful to Hilo Walmart for donating a wireless phone with a local Hilo prefix that is being used as a one-number information line related to donations.”

Additional corporate partners have stepped up to support The Salvation Army’s EDS efforts and offer a variety of ways the public can participate:

First Hawaiian Bank – Aloha for Hawaii Fund to support relief efforts for the Kīlauea Volcano eruption on the Big Island and recovery efforts for flooding on Kauai and in East Oahu. Donations can now be made at any of First Hawaiian Bank’s 61 branches located in Hawai‘i, Guam and Saipan.

Foodland – “Aloha for Puna & Pahoa” Disaster Relief (The Salvation Army). Customers will be able to make monetary donations at all Foodland and Sack N Save stores in Hawaii in $5, $10 or $20 amounts beginning May 9. Donations will go towards The Salvation Army’s EDS efforts.

HiLife – Kokua Collection – A percentage of the proceeds from various HiLife clothing items in their Kokua Collection will be donated to Salvation Army Hawaiian and Pacific Islands division to assist with their relief efforts to victims of recent devastating floods on O‘ahu and Kaua‘i as well as erupting volcano on Hawai‘i island. For details, visit https://hilifehawaii.com/collections/kokua

During emergencies, the best way the public can help is to provide monetary donations that allow the delivery of the exact relief supplies a community needs. Plus, The Salvation Army uses 100% of all donations designated ‘disaster relief’ in support of disaster operations.”

Those wishing to donate food and bottled water should contact Food Basket, Hawaii Island’s Food Bank. They are located at 40 Holomua St. in Hilo and 73-4161 Uluwini Pl. in Kailua-Kona or call (808) 933-6030.

The public is encouraged to support the emergency disaster services efforts via monetary donations at hawaii.salvationarmy.org or by calling The Salvation Army – Hawaiian & Pacific Islands Divisional Headquarters at (808) 988-2136.

One-hundred percent of the donated funds will support The Salvation Army’s emergency disaster services in Hawai‘i.