State gets more funding for school lunches

Hawaiʻi will receive an additional $8 million annually to help provide school lunches for keiki.

The U.S. The Department of Agriculture announced this week reimbursement rates for school lunch will increase by 13 percent this year.

Funding will go toward providing healthy meals at Hawaiʻi schools, child care, after-school and summer programs where more than 100,000 children will benefit.

The rate increase is the culmination of several years of work by local anti-hunger organizations and child advocacy groups including Hawaiʻi Appleseed, Hawaiʻi Children’s Action Network, ʻUlupono Initiative and the Hawaiʻi Afterschool Alliance.

The groups worked together to publish the “Feed Our Keiki” report in May 2022, which showed the federal reimbursement rates didn’t meet the current cost of providing school meals in Hawaiʻi.