More than a year after the Hawaii Department of Education sparked ire by instructing schools not to apply for funding from a $650,000 federal food grant it had helped secure, the agency has yet to produce a clear plan for how it will use the grant before it expires.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture Local Food for Schools grant would allow schools to purchase Hawaii-grown produce like bok choy and sweet potatoes and could help DOE meet a legislative mandate to spend nearly a third of its food budget on local ingredients by 2030.
Hawaii received a one-year extension on the federal grant and has until June 2025 to spend the funds. After that, the money will return to the federal government, said U.S. Rep. Jill Tokuda.
“Good intentions and need are not enough,” Tokuda said. “We have to make sure we will actually be able to get the money to where it’s needed most.”
Farm-to-school advocates say they haven’t seen any concrete plans for how DOE plans to spend its share of the USDA grant. The nearly $650,000 grant is split between DOE and charter schools, with the department initially receiving $500,000 of the funding.
USDA said it hasn’t received any reports of Hawaii spending the funding so far, although a handful of charter schools are starting to take advantage of the grant.
But even if charter schools received all the grant funding, it would be difficult to fully spend the money without DOE’s involvement, said Dana Shapiro, chief executive officer of the Hawaii Ulu Cooperative. Out of Hawaii’s 37 charter schools, roughly half may be eligible to use the federal funding, and not all campuses have the budget or kitchen capacity needed to cook their own meals.
“The program hasn’t had any real impact on the farming community yet,” Shapiro said.
While funds remain unspent, numerous schools have shown continued interest in the USDA grant.
Nearly 50 DOE and charter schools have attended training sessions teaching cafeteria staff how to prepare and use ingredients available for purchase under the grant. The sessions were hosted by the Hawaii Child Nutrition Programs, which oversees USDA programs in all participating public schools and operates under the DOE.
But despite the available training for cafeteria staff, DOE instructed schools not to apply for the USDA funding last spring. Superintendent Keith Hayashi later cited miscommunication about recipe development between HCNP and the School Food Services Branch, which also falls under DOE’s umbrella and runs meal programs across 258 campuses.
The department has since fired former assistant superintendent Randall Tanaka, who oversaw SFSB at the time. But DOE still hasn’t explained if — or how — schools will participate in the grant moving forward.
“The Department is currently working on an implementation plan regarding this grant for schools for the upcoming school year,” DOE spokesperson Krislyn Yano said in an emailed statement. “More information will be available to schools at a later date.”
Both DOE and HCNP declined an interview for the story and would not share how much of the federal funding, if any, has been spent.
Jesse Cooke, vice president of investments and analytics at the Ulupono Initiative, said he’s heard of little progress from DOE so far. But, he said, using the grant could only benefit students and local producers who would supply bok choy, kabocha, sweet potato and ground beef to schools throughout the year.
“It’s not much, but it does take a lot of the risk away,” Cooke said. “I don’t see the disadvantages.”
The department failed to submit its annual report on school meals to state lawmakers this year, but it previously estimated that it spent just over 6% of its food budget on local ingredients in 2023. The department will need to increase its spending by five times to meet its 2030 goal.
DOE has struggled with staffing shortages in its cafeterias and state offices in recent years, Tokuda said, but she’s hopeful that Hawaii will be able to spend the entirety of the grant through the combined efforts of DOE and public charter schools.
“I do feel that while any amount is significant, $600,000 is a manageable enough amount to be spent down amongst our public school students,” she said.
Some charters are stepping up to use the funding before it’s too late.
On the Big Island, Connections Public Charter School serves over 300 students in grades kindergarten through 12. School nutrition program director Jason Schwerdtfeger said he was able to tap into the Local Food for Schools grant this spring by introducing an enchilada recipe that featured local beef.
Schwerdtfeger added that he’s hoping to use more of the funding next year to purchase more local beef and possibly kabocha for school meals.
David Gibson said he only recently heard about the grant and submitted an application on behalf of the three charter schools his organization, the Hookakoo Corporation, oversees. If approved, the three schools on Molokai, Oahu and Big Island would share just over $15,000 in the upcoming school year.
In total, the three schools spend over $1.5 million on meals every year, Gibson said, so the USDA funding would have a limited impact on their budgets. But he’s still grateful for the opportunity, especially since it can be expensive for Molokai schools to purchase local ingredients from other islands.
“Every bit helps,” Gibson said. “We can’t complain.”
The Ulu Cooperative is one of nine vendors that can provide ingredients to schools using grant funding. So far, Shapiro said, she’s only received one order purchasing produce for charter school meals.
Farmers are interested in supporting the program, Shapiro said, but they need time to grow crops like kabocha. If the planning process doesn’t begin soon, it could be difficult to meet schools’ demands later in the year, she added.
“It’s a really big challenge,” Shapiro said.
Meanwhile, DOE is preparing to invest $28 million in a centralized kitchen leaders have claimed will introduce more local ingredients in school meals.
When completed, the Wahiawa kitchen could serve up to 20,000 meals every day for students in Leilehua, Mililani and Waialua schools. DOE’s bid for the kitchen closed in May, but the department hasn’t announced the project’s contractor yet.
State Rep. Amy Perruso said the centralized kitchen could support DOE’s goal to source more ingredients from local farmers, but the state can’t rely on these plans alone. The department has shared few details about the project’s implementation, and Perruso would like to see more investments that enable individual schools to cook meals from scratch.
Cooke said the department will need to work more closely with local farmers to ensure they’re able to produce ingredients at a larger scale that can supply a centralized kitchen. The kitchen could be a few years away from operating, he added, and the department needs to use its funding more wisely to meet its 2030 goal.
“Right now, the overarching strategy doesn’t seem to be there, or it’s just not well-publicized,” Cooke said.
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This story was originally published by Honolulu Civil Beat and distributed through a partnership with The Associated Press.