Fewer Hawaiʻi kids are getting free summer meals
Less than 1 in 11 eligible keiki is participating, dropping Hawaiʻi to 43rd in the nation.
HONOLULU, Hawaiʻi — Fewer than 1 in 11 (8.8 percent) of the low-income students who ate free or reduced-price school lunch during the academic year also got summer lunch in 2018. That places Hawaiʻi well below the national average of 14.1 percent, and at 43rd in the nation. That is a drop from 41st place a year earlier and translates into 500 fewer children in Hawaiʻi getting free lunch on a typical summer day.
This ranking comes from a national report, “Hunger Doesn’t Take a Vacation,” which was released today by the Food Research & Action Center (FRAC), a leading national anti-hunger organization located in Washington, D.C. This report analyzes participation in the federal summer nutrition programs across the country. The rankings are determined by comparing the number of children and youth receiving free summer lunch to the number of low-income children eating school lunch during the regular school year.
In comparison, the top-performing jurisdiction, Washington, D.C., served summer lunch to over a third (34.5 percent) of its low-income students who received school lunch in 2018. If Hawaiʻi could increase its summer lunch participation to FRAC’s benchmark of 40 low-income keiki per every 100 who eat school lunch, the state would feed an additional 19,000 low-income children and youth, and would receive an additional $1.54 million in federal funding in July alone.
On the bright side, Hawaiʻi’s ranking is likely to improve next year, due to an exciting new partnership between the Department of Education’s ʻAina Pono program and the Waiʻanae Coast Comprehensive Health Center (WCCHC). With ʻAina Pono providing meals and a food truck, and WCCHC providing volunteers, hundreds of children and youth on the Waiʻanae Coast are already getting free meals this summer.
“We commend ʻAina Pono on bringing summer meals to keiki who need them with their new summer food truck. Boosting participation in summer meals is a win-win: they nourish students when they aren’t getting lunch at school, help families stretch budgets further, and draw federal funds into the local economy,” said Nicole Woo, Senior Policy Analyst at Hawaiʻi Appleseed. “Children and youth also benefit from the enrichment activities offered at the vast majority of sites—activities that keep them learning, engaged, and better prepared to return to the classroom in the fall.”
Another bright spot is the fact that Hawaiʻi provided free summer breakfast to 78.2 percent of the number of keiki who got free summer lunch in 2018, far outperforming the national average of 53.8 percent. FRAC’s separate report on summer breakfast states, “While it is encouraging that these states [with strong participation in summer breakfast but weak participation in summer lunch] served summer breakfast to the majority of children eating summer lunch, too many children are still missing out on both meals.”
The Hawaiʻi Department of Education has posted a list of the dates and hours of operation of the record number of 71 public schools offering free meals this summer. The Honolulu and Kauaʻi Departments of Parks and Recreation, Maui’s PALS Program, as well as a number of charter or private schools, public housing developments, and community organizations are also offering free summer meals.
