Let’s Talk Food: School lunches in Hawaiʻi
The DOE is increasing local food in student meals as well as connecting our keiki with the ʻāina using local products from the agricultural community.
Hawaiʻi ranks last in participation rate for school breakfast programs
Hawaiʻi's high poverty rate means ensuring more students have access to healthy meals is imperative.
Hawaiʻi in last place for school breakfast
Fewer than 40 low-income children in Hawaiʻi ate school breakfast for every 100 that received free or reduced-price school lunch last year.
More kids need school breakfast
Fewer than 4 in 10 low-income students who eat school lunch are also eating school breakfast in our state.
How to encourage healthy diets and support local agriculture
Nutrition incentive programs like SNAP help stretch budgets and put good food on tables.
It takes everyone to bring fresh local food to keiki
Under the ʻĀina Pono initiative, schools are serving nutritious meals using locally sourced ingredients.
69 public schools offer free summer meals. But most kids don't claim them
Low participation in summer meal programs robs the state of more than a million dollars a month in federal reimbursements for the meals.
The crusade to keep Hawaiʻi kids fed this summer
While the Department of Education provides meals on summer school campuses, other efforts are afoot to deliver food to non-school venues.
Study: few Hawaiʻi students have access to after-school meals
A new report by the Food Research & Action Center shows Hawaiʻi near the bottom in terms of serving an after-school supper to low-income students.
When it comes to school breakfast, we can do better
Research shows that when students eat school breakfast they have lower rates of obesity and improved attendance, behavior and grades.
Hawaiʻi schools can’t seem to give breakfast away
Getting eligible students to eat free or reduced-price morning meals is more of a struggle in the islands than on the mainland.
Kamaile Academy wanted its kids to eat breakfast; here's how they made it happen
Most public schools in Hawaiʻi struggle to get kids to participate in school breakfast: Kamaile Academy seems to have found the solution.
Hawaiʻi nonprofit seeks a statewide effort to fight hunger
One in five children in the islands deals with hunger, according to a recent report.
Hawaiʻi schools celebrate farm to school week
From Oct. 2 to 5, students at Kohala public schools will enjoy delicious, fresh cooked meals that will feature local ingredients such as Big Island ground beef, apple bananas, sweet potatoes and pineapple.
Nutrition program earns award for Big Isle school
Kona Pacific Public Charter School was the first in the state to offer a universal breakfast program in 2014, with assistance from Hawaiʻi Appleseed.
The Conversation: Increased enrollment in summer school lunch programs
It is an undeniable fact of being human: hunger never takes a holiday. For kids in summer school, being hungry doesn’t take a vacation either.
Number of Hawaiʻi students eating free summer meals increases
More students in Hawaiʻi took advantage of free summer meals last year, according to a national report released this week.
Hawaiʻi’s child well-being 17th in latest national rankings
High housing costs remain a significant challenge in our state. When families spend so much of their income on housing, they have fewer resources to meet other basic needs.
Kudos to schools for more free meals
While there’s a lot more work to be done, congratulations should be offered when deserved. This is one of those moments.
Change in school lunch policy urged after kids denied meals
There have been times in the past where a student’s balance on their school lunch account has hit zero and the student’s lunch was taken away from them just as they sat down to eat it.