The Department of Education (Department) strives to improve student health, enrich the local food system through the support and increase of local food procurement, and expand relationships between public schools and agricultural communities.
This project aims to provide additional food security and stability to students and their families who belong to underserved communities by providing produce boxes during school intersession when students are normally not provided meals. This project provides the Department an opportunity to strengthen its relationships with the agricultural community by soliciting and procuring from food hubs to provide and distribute produce boxes.
Due to the unique geography of Hawaii, this project will be able to expand economic opportunity and provide support for a multitude of our local and socially disadvantaged farmers and producers across Hawaii’s different islands.
The Department plans to provide produce boxes to school children and their families who are enrolled in schools participating in the Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) program. The Department has participating schools across five islands (Oahu, Hawaii, Kauai, Maui and Molokai) and estimates that at least 60% of the enrolled students belong to an underserved community. The project estimates it can service all enrolled students in CEP schools, roughly 43,000, with the aim to provide produce from at least three different farmers per island or more, where possible, to try and maximize the number of local farmers and producers serviced through this project.