The Honolulu Department of Parks and Recreation completed its “Let’s Meet at the Park” initiative Tuesday, installing more than 600 park benches and tables throughout Oahu.

The initiative’s goal was to provide new benches and tables and to bring in replacements where needed. In lower-income communities around Oahu, 347 benches and 299 tables at 61 gardens and parks were installed.

To mark the completion of the project on Tuesday, City Council member Augie Tulba, city parks director Laura H. Thielen, city maintenance support services manager Peter Yamashita and other staff enjoyed pupu at one of the newly installed tables at Bill Balfour Jr. Waipahu District Park.

“In a department with hundreds of locations and thousands of amenities in our inventory, it is important to remember that the simplest of facilities can have the most profound impact,” Thielen said Tuesday in a news release. “We hope these tables and benches serve as the foundation from which priceless park memories can be generated for generations to come.”

The project, which took approximately eight months to complete, cost around $2.88 million in federal funds. DPR used Community Development Block Grant designations — a federal program that provides annual grants to improve communities in low- to moderate-­income areas — to determine which parks would receive the benches and tables. While CDBG designations were used to select the parks and gardens, funds were appropriated by the Honolulu City Council from the American Rescue Plan Act.

“As a kid from public housing, our community parks shaped who I am ­today. The parks were where I grew up,” Tulba said in the news release. “The ‘Let’s Meet at the Park’ initiative to install new benches in lower-income communities will make our parks more welcoming for our community members. Our communities now more than ever need opportunities that will help to foster deep, meaningful connections with their neighbors and nurture a beautiful sense of pride in this place we call home.”