It Takes a Village to Host a Tourist

3:08 p.m.

Executive chef Jeffrey Vigilla kneels over “Gourdzilla” and cuts the 646-pound pumpkin into dozens of chunks. The pumpkin had been displayed in the main lobby and was now being turned into 100 pies and 100 gallons of soup as part of the Thanksgiving meal served at the Institute for Human Services homeless shelter in the Honolulu neighborhood of Iwilei. The Hilton has been providing Thanksgiving dinner at the IHS homeless shelter for 25 years. Vigilla planned to plant seeds from the pumpkin on the village property in the hopes of growing a giant pumpkin, instead of having to ship one in from the West Coast.