Lawmakers are keeping pressure on DOE for school meal plans

House lawmakers are grilling the Department of Education for substantive detail on its plans for the school food system.

Senate and House lawmakers introduced concurrent resolutions this session requesting more information from DOE, particularly on how a proposed $35 million centralized kitchen in Wahiawa will help the department reach the target of 30 percent local food spending by 2030, as mandated in Acts 175 and 176 of 2021. 

The DOE says the Wahiawā model would eventually be replicated on other islands and deliver meals for the entire state.

The absence so far of a detailed strategy from DOE has also encouraged farm to school advocates to point to the unsung success of the ʻAina Pono pilot program, which ran from 2016 until 2018.

That pilot indicated the DOE’s food service issues could be addressed using local kitchens, using locally sourced produce.

The DOE has dismissed that idea, arguing the central kitchen is the most viable and cited numbers that advocates and lawmakers have taken issue with, including a cost estimate for refurbishing the state’s large network of school kitchens at $10 million, each, or about $2.5 billion in total.