{"id":19539,"date":"2026-04-28T09:56:28","date_gmt":"2026-04-28T19:56:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hawaiipublicschools.org\/?p=19539"},"modified":"2026-04-28T10:21:57","modified_gmt":"2026-04-28T20:21:57","slug":"2026-tofu-poke-bowls-debut-on-lunch-menus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hawaiipublicschools.org\/ko\/2026-tofu-poke-bowls-debut-on-lunch-menus\/","title":{"rendered":"Tofu poke bowls debut on Hawai\u02bbi public school lunch menus"},"content":{"rendered":"

KAILUA \u2014  This April, Hawai\u2018i public school cafeterias statewide introduced a twist on a local favorite \u2014 poke bowls. Tofu poke, prepared fresh in school cafeterias, featured tofu mixed with green onions and onions, tossed in a Hawaiian-style sauce of shoyu, sesame oil, garlic and ginger.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Students at Kailua Elementary were intrigued by the new plant-based dish and its familiar local flavors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI thought it was really good, and I liked the sauce with it,\u201d said fourth-grader Jayzen Neufeldt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sixth-grader Julian Bermudez was pleasantly surprised by both the taste and nutritional value.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe tofu is actually pretty great \u2014 it\u2019s healthy. I don\u2019t know why people don\u2019t like it,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s like fish, and the sauce with it is really good. And if you mix it with rice, it\u2019s much better.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fifth-grader Kiara Kane-Rodrigues also welcomed the chance to try tofu in a new way. \u201cIt was good. I like tofu. I haven\u2019t had it in a long time, so it was nice to taste it again,\u201d she said. \u201cI like how it\u2019s soft. I don\u2019t think I like it plain \u2014 I like it with shoyu.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although the recent severe weather impacted the availability of local produce across the state, schools were encouraged to incorporate locally grown vegetables, if available, as part of the Department\u2019s broader farm-to-school initiative. This statewide effort promotes food sustainability, supports local agriculture, and aligns with Act 175\u2019s goals to improve student health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Department, in partnership with Kapi\u02bbolani Community College\u2019s Culinary Institute of the Pacific and the Culinary Institute of America, is redeveloping menu offerings to feature more locally inspired dishes that incorporate Hawai\u02bbi-grown ingredients. Select dishes \u2014 including a tofu poke bowl recipe \u2014 will be introduced next school year, with student feedback helping to refine each item to meet both quality and student preference standards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hawai\u2018i\u2019s public schools are among the state\u2019s largest institutional consumers of food, serving more than 100,000 student meals each day. The Department continues to collaborate with local farmers and vendors statewide to expand access to fresh, locally grown produce across all schools.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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KAILUA \u2014  This April, Hawai\u2018i public school cafeterias statewide introduced a twist on a local favorite \u2014 poke bowls. Tofu poke, prepared fresh in school cafeterias, featured tofu mixed with green onions and onions, tossed in a Hawaiian-style sauce of shoyu, sesame oil, garlic and ginger. Students at Kailua Elementary were intrigued by the new […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":19541,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"856,888,893,1022,1619,1622","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","_sitemap_exclude":false,"_sitemap_priority":"","_sitemap_frequency":"","_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","wp_popup_display_lightbox":0,"wp_popup_suppress":"","wp_popup_trigger":"","wp_popup_trigger_amount":0,"wp_popup_disable_on_mobile":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[30,21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19539","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-highlights","category-news"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","taxonomy_info":{"category":[{"value":30,"label":"Highlights"},{"value":21,"label":"News"}]},"featured_image_src_large":["https:\/\/hawaiipublicschools.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/20260428-tofu-poke-1024x683.jpg",1024,683,true],"author_info":{"display_name":"Stanley Lee","author_link":"https:\/\/hawaiipublicschools.org\/ko\/author\/stanley-leek12-hi-us\/"},"comment_info":0,"category_info":[{"term_id":30,"name":"Highlights","slug":"highlights","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":30,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":4,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":30,"category_count":4,"category_description":"","cat_name":"Highlights","category_nicename":"highlights","category_parent":0},{"term_id":21,"name":"News","slug":"news","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":21,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":316,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":21,"category_count":316,"category_description":"","cat_name":"News","category_nicename":"news","category_parent":0}],"tag_info":false,"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-06 11:50:42","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"post_status","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hawaiipublicschools.org\/ko\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19539","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hawaiipublicschools.org\/ko\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hawaiipublicschools.org\/ko\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hawaiipublicschools.org\/ko\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/29"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hawaiipublicschools.org\/ko\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19539"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/hawaiipublicschools.org\/ko\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19539\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19550,"href":"https:\/\/hawaiipublicschools.org\/ko\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19539\/revisions\/19550"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hawaiipublicschools.org\/ko\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19541"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hawaiipublicschools.org\/ko\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19539"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hawaiipublicschools.org\/ko\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19539"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hawaiipublicschools.org\/ko\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19539"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}