Echo and Friends Picnic Placemat Brings Fun and Learning to Hawai’i Food Bank Summer Meal Program
2026-06-08 • ECHO Team
3 min read
There’s Always A Seat For You At Our Picnic!
ECHO is proud to partner with Hawaiʻi Foodbank's Kaukau 4 Keiki summer meal box program to bring heart health education directly to children and families across Hawaiʻi.
As part of this exciting collaboration, ECHO developed a series of interactive placemats featuring Echo and Friends that transform mealtimes into opportunities for learning, creativity, and conversation. Distributed alongside meal boxes that reach thousands of youth throughout the state, each week's placemat introduces children to heart-healthy concepts through activities, games, puzzles, and coloring pages. Our goal is simple: to make mealtimes not only filling, but also engaging, educational, and fun!
This week marked the first distribution of the placemats, and the response was incredible. ECHO Founder Kimberly Uehisa joined distribution events at Waipio Soccer Complex and Inspire Church Kapolei, where she personally handed out placemats to families picking up meal boxes. The excitement was immediate–over 1,000 placemats were distributed!
Families shared how much they appreciated having an activity their children could enjoy while waiting in the pickup line or to take home to keep their children busy this summer. Receiving a placemat alongside their meal box created a moment of surprise, joy, and curiosity for the families. It was a reminder that supporting a child's well-being goes beyond providing nutritious food. It also means providing opportunities to learn, grow, and build healthy habits.
By combining access to healthy meals with engaging heart health resources, we can help empower children to have a heart-healthy lifestyle!
We are grateful to Hawaiʻi Foodbank for their partnership and shared commitment to supporting Hawaiʻi's keiki. We look forward to reaching even more families and children throughout the summer.
Stay tuned for future placemat adventures with Echo and Friends!
Show Off Your Placemat!
If you have received an Echo's Picnic Placemat, you have the opportunity to show off your work by submitting photos of your completed mats. Selected submissions will be featured in our website and social media pages. Send your photos at [email protected].
Volunteer Opportunities!
If you are interested in distributing placemats with us, click here to visit our events page and find out more information.
Partner With Us!
Our placemats are perfect for places like kid-friendly restaurants, casual eateries, farmers markets, and grocery stores. Our youthful and inviting characters are here to spark inspiration and joy, making every meal into a memory.
Want to bring Echo’s Picnic Placemats to your establishment?
Click here to go to our contact page to fill out a partnership form.
Want to sample a placemat?
Click here to go to our activities page and print out your very own Echo’s Picnic Placemat.