(CNN) – When a mother in Hawaii showed up five hours early to a food distribution to make sure she could feed her family of 12, the community stepped up to help.
After being furloughed from her job as a housekeeper for 37 years at the Hilton Hawaiian Village in Waikiki and waiting for unemployment, Herminia Urmatan found herself in a food distribution line for the first time in her life.
“It’s so hard you know to wait six hours in the car,” Urmatan said. “We need it to do it for the kids and my grandchildren.”
After KITV first aired a story about Urmatan and her struggling family, many took to social media asking how they could help. KITV reached out to several non-profits who said it would be difficult to collect goods for one individual so KITV took matters into their own hands.
On Friday, with the help of her union, KITV was able to reunite with Urmatan outside the station for a supply drop off that was organized within 48 hours.
Urmatan felt ashamed to accept donations but with her children also out of work and two grandchildren in need of diapers, she agreed to come.
The community donated enough supplies to last a month.
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