Community partnership will serve free meals to keiki during school closure

A partnership of nonprofit and governmental organizations has started serving free lunch to children and youth at seven sites on Oʻahu during the current public school closure.

Five will be open on Prince Kūhiō Day, when state Department of Education-sponsored feeding sites will be closed.

On a typical school day, about 61,000 economically disadvantaged Hawaiʻi students benefit from free or reduced-price school meals. For many, these are the only nutritious meals that they eat regularly. For their families, these meals help relieve financial stress by reducing their food budgets.

During the summer, when students aren’t getting free or reduced-price meals at school, community partners work together to provide meals to children and youth in low-income areas via the federal Summer Food Service Program (SFSP).

During this unplanned school closure, three SFSP sponsors—YMCA Honolulu, Parents and Children Together, and Pālama Settlement—are opening food sites in low-income areas on Oʻahu for keiki in partnership with Aloha Harvest, Kapiʻolani Community College, Hawaiʻi Appleseed and Hawaiʻi Child Nutrition Programs.

These SFSP sites provide added feeding capacity on Oʻahu to complement the feeding sites that the Department of Education (DOE) is operating at 38 schools, out of 256 public schools across the state, during the school closure.

The dates of service at these SFSP sites may be extended, depending upon DOE announcements of further school closures and funding availability.