*Note: Maui Economic Opportunity, Inc., is celebrating its 60th anniversary in 2025. The Community Action Partnership program, born of President Lyndon Johnson’s War on Poverty and the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964, was chartered on March 22, 1965.*
Maui Economic Opportunity’s reach stretches from East Maui to Lāna‘i City to Kaunakakai, Moloka‘i, while offering most of the agency’s 30 programs in each location.
On Moloka‘i, MEO offices and a Head Start preschool were completed in 1992 on 1.3 acres at 380 Kolapa Place in Kaunakakai. Prior to moving, MEO was located across the street from Kaunakakai Elementary and served as a “community hub,” recalled MEO Moloka‘i Director Mahie McPherson, who leads a staff of 19.
She joined MEO in 2022 after a decade at the county’s Division of Motor Vehicles & Licensing. McPherson follows respected Moloka‘i directors, including her predecessor Yolanda Reyes and the late Fred Bicoy.
In the Aug. 1, 1984, Ke Kukini Newspaper, Linda J. Dunig praised Bicoy as “a leader in the community” in a Letter to the Editor. She quoted him as saying MEO’s goals for the future are “what they have always been, the upgrading of the quality of life for Moloka‘i’s people.”
As a Community Action Partnership agency – one of more than a thousand nationwide – MEO tailors programs based on the needs of the community. The focus is on unmet needs, avoiding duplication of work by other entities.
Some programs continue to operate as they have for decades, such as Head Start, food surplus distributions and the kupuna Red Card discount program. Others have faded away, including the Language Arts Multi-Cultural Program (LAMP) that operated out of Kilohana Elementary and the National Farmworker Jobs Program.
In fiscal year 2023-24, MEO Moloka‘i assisted nearly 1,900 residents with most MEO programs. This includes specialized Human Services Transportation, de facto public transportation on the island that takes residents to dialysis, health appointments, shopping and other activities; rent and utility assistance; job and employment training; monthly food distribution; business planning classes; and kupuna club support through the Planning & Coordinating Council.
MEO Youth Services began offering its bullying and suicide prevention program and the alcohol and substance abuse prevention program Kāohi at Moloka‘i High and Intermediate about two years ago. Alcohol and drug abuse and suicide were identified as areas of concern on the island.
“MEO is committed to the residents of Moloka‘i and will continue to identify needs and create programs to improve lives and offer hope for the future,” said MEO CEO Debbie Cabebe.
MEO Moloka‘i can be reached at (808) 553-3216.
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This cover of the MEO annual report for the 1992-93 fiscal year shows the old and “new” sites of MEO offices on Moloka‘i. The new office at 380 Kolapa Place opened in 1992. The old office was located across the street from Kaunakakai Elementary.
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A Kamp Kāohi youth takes a ride down the water slide at the first overnight camp on April 8, 2023, at Moloka’i Baptist Church. 16 middle and high schoolers joined the two-day camp, run by MEO Youth Services.
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Amy Makaiwi watches as Gene Keanini demonstrates the correct way of securing a wheelchair client during training in December 2023.
Retiring Moloka‘i Manager Yolanda Reyes was given a send off by the Head Start children in March 2022.
