For the past 19 years, Sharon Black has spent her Saturday afternoons making dozens of sandwiches and handing them out to homeless people, complete with a cup of chilled juice and a helping of human kindness.

But after the state Department of Health learned this month that Black's Kau Kau Wagon — that's what she calls her loose-knit group of volunteers — lacked a required permit, she was ordered to stop.

If Black shows up at Chinatown Gateway Park tomorrow to hand out food without a permit, the state Sanitation Branch could fine her $1,000 — and $1,000 every time she returns to hand out sandwiches.

"We're just out there making up for what the city and state can't do," Black said. "I believe in what we are doing. Even if it is just a meal, it makes a big difference — in hope alone."

The entire event is like "a family picnic" that lasts 45 minutes. She'll feed 100 to 150 people and everyone, from volunteers to the homeless, helps clean up the small park afterward, she said.

And each Thanksgiving weekend since 1995, Black and her volunteers have helped organize a dinner for about 600 people. The event has attracted high-profile servers such as Gov. Linda Lingle, Lt. Gov. James "Duke" Aiona, U.S. Attorney Ed Kubo and Ho-nolulu Prosecutor Peter Carlisle and members of the police department, Black said.

But the solution to her problem isn't as simple as applying for a permit and paying the $50 fee, which Black did last week, said Rex Mitsunaga, program manager for the Sanitation Branch. She needs access to a kitchen approved by the Health Department. Black thought she had a slam-dunk answer to the kitchen question.

She has used the kitchen at the Institute for Human Services since 1988. On some Saturdays, IHS staffers even shared lettuce and cheese with Black, lest the products go bad.

When Black asked IHS Executive Director Lynn Maunakea for a letter confirming that relationship — something the Health Department suggested — Maunakea balked.

"Frankly, she has been doing it and has been under the radar screen," Maunakea said.

IHS, an Iwilei-based nonprofit that feeds and houses the city's homeless, had allowed Black to use its facility to "provide a service that does not benefit IHS or its guests," Maunakea told Black in an e-mail this week.

She told Black to find another kitchen.

Maunakea said the Kau Kau Wagon doesn't fit neatly within the IHS structure for volunteers who are approved to use the kitchen and for community agencies that work with the shelter. Those folks need to follow Health Department sanitation rules and have TB clearances, she said.

She worried that the Kau Kau Wagon could create a situation that jeopardizes IHS' good-standing with the Health Department and its good insurance rate, Maunakea said.

No one has ever complained before about Black's outreach efforts. But the Sanitation Branch got an anonymous complaint and had to respond, Mitsunaga said.

"It said there was a lot of trash and rubbish being generated," he said. "And lots of human urination and defecation due to the distribution of food by this person at Chinatown Gateway Park."

When an inspector checked Sept. 17, all he found was Black serving food.

"I understand she is feeding the homeless people," Mitsunaga said. "Our regulations don't discriminate if you are homeless or not. The rules cover everybody. We don't want anyone to get sick."

On the last Saturday of every month, The Honolulu Japanese Seventh-day Adventist Church serves the food. Denis Mee-Lee, head elder for the church and a former Hawai'i Health Department deputy director, said rules sometimes have to be ignored.

"I really hope that government is for the good of the people," he said. "I would say that frequently we do have to look the other way on certain things. And I think this is one of those things."

The church has helped every month for 10 years. Sometimes the homeless sing with them after they've finished eating.

Most of the meal his congregation served last week — spaghetti, salad, cake — was cooked in people's homes, Mee-Lee said. Everyone wants to get involved because they know people are hurting, especially at the end of the month when food stamps and other benefits run out.

"Many will say when they pick up food that they have not eaten in days," he said.

Black, who pays for most of the food out of her own pocket, doesn't understand why anyone would complain about helping people. She hasn't decided what she plans to do tomorrow.

"If push comes to shove, we can make them in my kitchen," she said. "But I don't know what will happen if I show up. I can't let these people down. They really count on this meal."

Reach Mike Gordon at mgordon@honoluluadvertiser.com.