The food is in place — turkeys and trimmings enough to feed a multitude — all waiting to be basted, seasoned and placed on the tables. An army of volunteers is ready to serve the feast to hundreds of hungry folks on Christmas Day.

Now, all that stands in the way of a very Merry Christmas for Honolulu's Downtown homeless is the proper last-minute approval.

For the second time in just more than two years, Sharon Black — whose loose-knit, volunteer-operated Kau Kau Wagon has fed thousands of less fortunate over the past two decades — has been caught in a bureaucratic permit dilemma.

With the annual Christmas celebration scheduled for Tuesday, Black now says she doesn't know if it will be allowed, even though she raided her donation account yesterday to pay a deposit on the necessary permit.

If she holds the free feast without the permit, she could be fined or jailed, she said.

"I could possibly get six months to a year in jail and pay up to a $250 fine, or both," she said.

For two decades Black has fed the homeless three Saturdays a month at the former Chinatown Gateway Park, now officially Sun Yat-sen Memorial Park. For the past 12 of those years, through the help of the Hilton Hawaiian Village — which supplies the food, its preparation and some 200 volunteers — the Kau Kau Wagon has fed legions of homeless at the park every Christmas Day.

But until this week Black said she had never heard of a city and county regulation specifying that if an event in a public park involves more than 50 people, a permit must be obtained and a $200 refundable deposit paid up front.

Black's Christmas feast draws 10 times that number, or more, each year.

Dana Takahara-Dias, deputy director of the city's Department of Parks and Recreation, said the regulation has been on the books since the mid-1980s but hasn't been strictly enforced because there had been almost no complaints.

However, "we have been receiving concerns about large picnic holders and large events," she said. "That's why we are addressing it at this time and being consistent across the board islandwide.

Takahara-Dias said the deposit covers any damage that may occur at the park during the event. Otherwise, the full deposit is refunded. The idea is for the park to be returned to its original condition after the event.

"And I have to admit that many of our user groups bring the park back to even better condition than it was," she said. "And we love them. We appreciate their help."

Black went through a similar problem with the state in fall 2005 after the Department of Health ordered her to halt her thrice-monthly sandwich and juice handouts because she lacked a required permit and her food was not prepared in an approved kitchen. When an approved kitchen was found at the 11th hour, Black was able to get the needed DOH permit.

Yesterday, even after paying the deposit, Black said she was given no assurance that the permit would be approved in time.

"They aren't even going to guarantee us Christmas right now," said Black.

But Takahara-Dias said she was reasonably certain the Christmas permit would be signed in time.

"It looks like she's got everything in," Takahara-Dias said. "So it's a safe assumption that if she has all the requirements completed, there will be no reason not to issue her a permit for this event."

Reach Will Hoover at whoover@honoluluadvertiser.com.

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