HONOLULU — This March public school cafeterias statewide were offered the opportunity to serve green eggs and ham fried rice for breakfast using locally grown green onions. 

Each day, the Hawaiʻi State Department of Education (HIDOE) serves approximately 26,000 breakfasts – or 4.6 million per school year – to ensure students start their day with the nutrition they need to focus, learn and thrive. This special breakfast item is being featured in light of National Read Across America Week and National School Breakfast Week, both which took place in the first week of March. 

Local bunching onions, a variety of green onions known to have a juicier stalk and stronger onion flavor, along with spinach colored this fun Dr. Seuss-inspired dish. An estimated 145 pounds of local green onions will be distributed statewide to serve the 78 participating schools.

Students and parents at Moanalua Elementary look forward to seeing more local ingredients in their school meals. 

“I think using local ingredients in my food is good because then it can be more fresh,” fourth grader Erin Nishimoto said. “It’ll taste better because then having fresh food has a unique taste.”

“Using local ingredients would help the school, help other students be more healthy, and help students to learn to eat their vegetables,” fifth grader Judah Logan added. 

The Department’s farm-to-school initiative aims to enhance food sustainability in Hawai‘i and aligns with Act 175, which focuses on improving the health of students while supporting local farmers. 

“It really helps out our Hawaiʻi farmers and gets the kids to learn more about what kind of things go into their foods as well too, and gets them excited about other local ingredients,” Moanalua Elementary parent Kristyn Nishimoto said. 

Charis Logan, another Moanalua Elementary parent, agreed. “It’s great that we can support local and that the kids get fresh ingredients. That’s awesome.”

Hawaiʻi public schools are the state’s largest institutional consumer of food products, serving over 100,000 student meals a day. The Department continues to work closely with local vendors statewide to see how fresh local produce can be scaled across all schools in the future on a regular basis.