For a seemingly no-brainer concept such as the Farm to School program, making headway has been mind-bogglingly difficult.
That concept, universally lauded, is to provide Hawaii school meals using more locally produced foods — thereby boosting the farm industry while also improving keiki health via more fresh and nutritional foods. Win-win, right?
Wrong. Despite passage of a 2015 law codifying Farm to School that launched two successful pilot projects, the effort remains mired. That, despite a follow-up law in 2021 that moved the program from the Department of Agriculture to the state Department of Education (DOE), with the mandate of locally sourcing 30% of food served in public schools by 2030.
In its first update on the program to the Legislature three months ago, the DOE reported a disappointing lack of progress. It said the department’s School Food Services Branch did not have enough funding for staff training, local food procurement or appropriate data collection.
But, as noted by the economic-justice advocacy group Hawaii Appleseed, the DOE had purchased eTrition, a school nutrition software program — but which was never implemented. The DOE, citing software deficiencies, is now seeking at least $1.6 million to buy another centralized tracking system.
That’s bad enough. Worse, though, DOE’s difficulties reveal an even deeper problem: the fundamental lack of knowledge and accountability over how funds are being spent in the procurement of foods and produce going into meals. Some school-to-school leeway is understandable — but it’s astounding how little grasp DOE’s top food-service people have on inventory and expenditures. Having no means of centralized bookkeeping opens the door widely to poor practices, mismanagement and even malfeasance.
“We have very poor data because we’re a highly decentralized purchasing system; every school buys on its own,” Randall Tanaka, assistant superintendent of the DOE’s Office of Facilities and Operations, was quoted as saying. “I can’t tell you if that kitchen manager is … buying from his uncle. That’s how we purchase currently. We need data. I need to know what we’re doing and what we’re buying.”
House Bill 2304 had aimed to provide funding, resources and a timetable for DOE to advance the Farm to School program. Think of the boon to local ag and to keiki nutrition due to the DOE being, as it self-noted, “the largest institutional buyer of food in the state.”
But the bill appears dead for this session — and with it, hopes to make real strides systemwide. It will fall to next year’s new leaders — governor, schools superintendent and legislators — to apply more, and better, brainpower to grow this Farm to School initiative.
