Hawaii Schools Are Buying Less Local Food During The Pandemic … Despite new legislation requiring public schools to serve student meals with more local ingredients, advocates say they are frustrated by a regression in local food initiatives.
For three years, a collective of 115 small farms on three islands supplied the state’s 257 public schools with tens of thousands of pounds of breadfruit, sweet potato, banana and papaya, furthering a movement to feed Hawaii’s youth healthier, made-from-scratch meals starring local ingredients.
The Hawaii Ulu Cooperative helped make it possible for school cafeterias to add new menu items, such as ulu beef stew, green papaya chicken soup and sweet potato pie. When dishes featuring local ingredients replaced processed food imports, more students opted to eat cafeteria meals.
Then the Covid-19 pandemic hit, and student meals changed.
With students shut out of their schools, cafeteria staff pivoted to grab-and-go meals that relied more heavily on food shipped in from the mainland.
