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John Ward remembers the early days of the pandemic. The executive vice president and chief marketing prod- uct officer at American Savings Bank joined the company to help boost its dig- ital banking platforms.
As it became clear the pandemic wasn’t ending any time soon, he remembers folks asking what more could be done to help.
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Then 2020 happened.
The answer came when business lead- ers and state lawmakers reached out to ASB.
Ward became the bank’s point person for the Hawai‘i Restaurant Card program. The first iteration, launched in 2020, went to about 140,000 people who filed for un- employment, and injected about $74 mil- lion in federal COVID-19 relief money into the local economy.
debit cards that businesses could buy in $25, $50 and $100 increments as gifts for their workers.
“It was a big influx of money that helped three different groups,” Ward says. “First of all, people who were struggling the most — unemployed people. The sec- ond group were local businesses, restau- rants and their staff. And the third group, interestingly, became the entire food supply chain — fishmongers, farmers, the people loading and unloading goods.”
It was so popular, the bank extended it into this year. Ward says the Business Holiday Cards infused more than $1.4 million into the economy.
Ward gives credit to Sheryl Matsuoka, executive director of the Hawai‘i Restau- rant Association; Sherry Menor-Mc- Namara, president and CEO of the Hawai‘i Chamber of Commerce; and Denise Yamaguchi, executive director of the Hawai‘i Agricultural Foundation.
“American Savings Bank has for de- cades had the focus that if we make a positive impact on the community it’s better for all of us,” he says. “It’s just a part of who we are, and it’s been that way for a long time.”
“Those three women were fearless and tireless in their support of this,” Ward says. “They were basically our PR agen- cies for this, talking to people, working through with us some of the issues, really getting the restaurants on board.”
When the HRC Business Card pro- gram ended in June, there was about $129,000 in unused funds. ASB donated it to the Hawai‘i Restaurant Association Educational Foundation, the Hawai‘i Chamber of Commerce Foundation and the Hawai‘i Agricultural Foundation — the philanthropic arms of the organiza- tions that support Hawai‘i’s local grow- ers and businesses.
They didn’t let up as 2020 gave way to 2021 and supply chain delays and staff- ing shortages added to the challenges facing local businesses.
Ward says it’s also an acknowledg- ment of the hard work the leaders of those organizations put into support- ing the program and the state’s econ- omy overall, work that they continue to do to promote economic recovery.
So began the evolution of the Hawai‘i Restaurant Card into the HRC Business Holiday Card. This version, released at the end of 2020, was not funded by fed- eral relief money. It was instead prepaid
— Karen Iwamoto
John Ward
The numbers make him proud to be a part of ASB.
Photo courtesy American Savings Bank