The price of hunger: Navigating the cost burden of free meals for Hawaiʻi students

The discrepancy between these estimates did not create enough certainty for the bills to move forward.

But organizations outside the DOE have calculated more accurate estimates that stay rather consistent.

Hawaiʻi Appleseedʻs “Equity on the Menu” shows a cost estimate of $26 million per year. This would be 1.2 percent of the Hawaiʻi DOE’s overall annual budget, set this year at just over $2 billion.

In a House Education Committee hearing on Feb. 11, DOE Superintendent Keith Hayashi stated that their current estimate is just over $44 million. Apart from rising food costs, the DOE was unable to provide an answer on why this increased from previous estimates.