The Hawaii State 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.1 The Department’s project aims to provide additional food security and stability to school children and their families by providing produce boxes during school intersession when students are not normally provided meals. The initial project aimed to provide produce boxes to students who are enrolled in schools participating in the Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) program (92 schools), however, with the additional funding through the Local Food Purchase Assistance Cooperative Agreement Plus 1 Relating to the Farm to School Program, Act 175, SLH 2021. * Lanai and Niihau both only have one school per island servicing grades K-12. 2 Program (LFPA Plus), the Department is looking to expand providing produce boxes to include students enrolled in Title I schools (an additional 83 schools). Expanding the project to include Title I schools will increase opportunities for local and socially disadvantaged farmers and producers, as the Department has Title I schools that reach across seven (7) different islands (Oahu, Hawaii, Kauai, Maui, Molokai, *Lanai, and *Niihau). The project estimates it can expand the number of farmers and producers it aims to receive produce from by requiring food hubs to receive produce from at least five different farmers and producers per island on Oahu, Hawaii, Kauai, Maui, and Molokai, and one farmer or producer on Lanai.
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