FATHER CLAUDE DU TEIL:
The Legacy of the "Peanut Butter Ministry"

Do you remember where you were and what you were doing in 1978? George Ariyoshi was Governor and Frank Fasi was the Mayor of Honolulu. On a hot summer day that year, one man was so moved by the need of his fellow citizens that he began passing out coffee and peanut butter sandwiches on a street corner in downtown Honolulu. It was the Reverend Claude DuTeil’s 58th birthday, and he was sowing the seeds of compassion that grew to become IHS.

Fr. Du Teil, the charismatic pastor of St. Christopher’s Episcopal Church in Kailua recognized a need in the community and stepped forward to offer what he had...time, compassion, a will to listen and to help and on most days, peanut butter sandwiches. Dubbed the “Peanut Butter Ministry,” the project was an outgrowth of Episcopal Bishop Browning’s Commission on Alcoholism, which was convened to find humane solutions for the problem of alcoholism.

With the help of Peter Giberson and Rick Loyd, two volunteer counselors who had gained their counseling skills by having successfully completed the Salvation Army’s Addiction Treatment Facility’s rehabilitation program themselves, DuTeil opened a drop-in alcoholism center on Smith St.

The center was open from 8am to 10pm seven days a week and saw an average of 60 people each day. They offered peanut butter sandwiches three times a day and on Friday and Saturday at 6pm Richard Rubie organized a hot meal. The meals were funded by the Hawaii Council of Churches.

In 1982, IHS incorporated as a private, non-profit agency and was able to succeed with the continued help of donations and volunteers from the faith based community.

Locations Changes

Locations changed fairly frequently back then. IHS even spent a few months operating out of St. Andrew’s Cathedral Tenney Theater stage area before locating “to the intense annoyance of the businesses downtown” to 49 S. Beretania St on the Fort Street Mall. When a fire burned IHS out of that location in 1983, Mayor Fasi made the 127 N. Beretania St. (an abandoned bathhouse) available for three years until it was to be torn down. In April 1986, IHS moved to the present location of the Iwilei Men’s Shelter at 350 Sumner St., which was built with the help of City and Federal funding expressly for IHS. In July 1, 1988, the Dr. Joseph Lucas Medical Clinic at IHS was dedicated to the first doctor that regularly visited IHS until he retired.

Du Teil described the work of IHS as follows:
“Our principal job is being a broker; a switchboard and an advocate for street people- or anyone in trouble. If it’s a place to stay, we find temporary shelter. If it’s hunger, we feed them. If it’s the need of a job, we try to find one. If it’s identification or the need to go back to where they came from, we try to expedite that. Our business is cutting red tape in various agencies to get things done. There is no other agency in this town that does all those things,” he said. “There are no obligations or fees here. Our only purpose is to be human and to help.” This is still very much our purpose today.

Back in 1987, at the Iwilei location, IHS slept 250 – 300 people per night, men on the first floor and women and children upstairs. In addition, 3600 to 4800 meals were served each week with all food donated by businesses, restaurants, and churches. Forty churches took turns cooking meals.

Leadership Changes

Leadership changed over the years. On July 1, 1990 on his 69th birthday and the agency’s 11th anniversary, Du Teil named the Rev. Richard Rowe, an Episcopal priest from Wahiawa and IHS Managing Director, as his successor. Rowe became Interim Director when Du Teil became ill with Parkinson’s and a hospitalization with the shingles virus.

Rowe resigned his position as Interim Executive Director on April 30, 1991. The Rev. Lee Kiefer, formerly the Institute’s Executive Assistant, was then appointed as Acting Director replacing Rowe. Kiefer served until 1992, when the Board hired Deborah Morikawa as Executive Director. Lynn Maunakea succeeded her in January 1, 1997 and resigned in December of 2005. Sherry Chong served as Interim Executive Director until June of 2006, when the board approved Connie Mitchell, our current Executive Director.

Second Shelter

Also in 1997, with the help of an operating grant from The Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation, IHS opened a second shelter, a separate one for women and families at 546 Ka‘aahi St.

IHS Today

Today, IHS sleeps up to 250 individuals at the Iwilei Men’s Shelter and 150 women and family individuals (including up to 60 children) at the Ka‘aahi St Shelter. Today, 6,300 – 7,000 meals are served weekly. Still the largest component of the IHS Meal Program, many of the original churches cook the meals.

Partnerships

In recent years, partnerships with agencies providing their services at the IHS locations have grown. Kalihi-Palama Health Center operates medical clinics through the Health Care for the Homeless Program at both locations. Medical, mental, and dental care, are now available at both shelters. The Veteran’s Administration is on site regularly to identify and serve veterans and The Salvation Army and Hina Mauka offer substance abuse education and treatment services. The Institute for Family Enrichment provides developmental building block education for the families, Farrington High’s School for Adults provides an instructor who helps with GED’s and both Legal Aid and the Volunteer Legal Services Hawaii provide free legal assistance. IHS is site to regular 12 Step Programs meetings, as well.

Towards the Solution: Supportive Housing

Another major change within the last couple of years is the movement to expand case management teams, who work with the partnering agencies to provide integrated services in helping our guests. Today, because of research that has taken place and models that have been tested, we have a better idea of what will work to best help the various segments of the population that make up the homeless. A more strategic effort is underway using data that we collect and analyze to triage and place our guests. We now know, for example that permanent housing that is enhanced with services is the goal for many of our guests, including the ones who have been homeless for many years.

All this is done with the same love and compassion that Du Teil had for the homeless when he founded IHS. This is both his legacy and our future.

On July 1st, The Rev. Du Teil would have been 86 years old. Thank you, Fr. Du Teil. Happy Birthday, IHS!