{"id":20165,"date":"2026-05-19T12:37:01","date_gmt":"2026-05-19T22:37:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hawaiipublicschools.org\/?p=20165"},"modified":"2026-05-19T12:38:03","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T22:38:03","slug":"2026-pork-guisantes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hawaiipublicschools.org\/sm\/2026-pork-guisantes\/","title":{"rendered":"Locally sourced Filipino pork guisantes brings farm-fresh cultural flavors to Hawai\u02bbi public school lunches"},"content":{"rendered":"

HONOLULU \u2014  This May Hawai\u02bbi public school cafeterias statewide were offered the opportunity to serve pork guisantes \u2014 a classic Filipino dish \u2014 for lunch using locally sourced pork from Island Farms in Wai\u2019anae as well as local green bell peppers, as available. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over 7,400 pounds of local pork and about 950 pounds of local green bell pepper are anticipated to be distributed to about 130 participating schools. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The traditional dish was new to many students at King William C. Lunalilo Elementary on O\u02bbahu, while also bringing familiar flavors that reminded some students of meals they enjoy at home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was really good, and I don’t think I’ve had it before,\u201d said third grader David Yin. \u201cIt\u2019s really new to me, and I was surprised that it’s delicious.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fourth grader Tayson Tobias Subiono admitted he was hesitant at first. \u201cWhen I first saw it on my plate, I thought, \u2018I don’t want to eat it,\u2019\u201d he said. \u201cBut then I tried it, and then I liked it a lot. And I ate all of it. It was very tasty.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For some students, the meal reflected flavors connected to their own cultural backgrounds. \u201cIt was good. And it was familiar from home,\u201d said fifth grader Jzlin Dela Cruz, whose family regularly makes pork guisantes at home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fifth grader Jessica Luu shared a similar experience. \u201cI thought it would be bad because I saw the peas,\u201d she said. \u201cBut then I tasted the sauce and it tasted like my Vietnamese culture.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Third grader Francy Saimon also enjoyed the dish:\u201cIt was very good and kind of like the same thing like what I always eat, but it tastes better.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The effort is part of the Department\u2019s farm-to-school initiative, which aims to enhance food sustainability in Hawai\u02bbi and aligns with the goals of Tulafono 175<\/a> to improve student health while supporting local farmers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think that using more local pork would be very good,\u201d added Tobias Subiono. \u201cI think it will help keep the culture of Hawai\u02bbi alive and well.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hawai\u02bbi public schools are one of the state\u2019s largest institutional consumers 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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\"Cafeteria<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Student<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Student<\/figure>\n<\/figure>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

HONOLULU \u2014  This May Hawai\u02bbi public school cafeterias statewide were offered the opportunity to serve pork guisantes \u2014 a classic Filipino dish \u2014 for lunch using locally sourced pork from Island Farms in Wai\u2019anae as well as local green bell peppers, as available.  Over 7,400 pounds of local pork and about 950 pounds of local […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":20167,"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":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20165","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","taxonomy_info":{"category":[{"value":21,"label":"News"}]},"featured_image_src_large":["https:\/\/hawaiipublicschools.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026-05-15-Lunalilo-Elementary-Pork-Guisantes-Lunch-19-1024x683.jpg",1024,683,true],"author_info":{"display_name":"Sara Miyazono","author_link":"https:\/\/hawaiipublicschools.org\/sm\/author\/sara-miyazonok12-hi-us\/"},"comment_info":0,"category_info":[{"term_id":21,"name":"News","slug":"news","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":21,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":325,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":21,"category_count":325,"category_description":"","cat_name":"News","category_nicename":"news","category_parent":0}],"tag_info":false,"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-27 05:40:24","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"post_status","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hawaiipublicschools.org\/sm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20165","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hawaiipublicschools.org\/sm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hawaiipublicschools.org\/sm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hawaiipublicschools.org\/sm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hawaiipublicschools.org\/sm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20165"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/hawaiipublicschools.org\/sm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20165\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20174,"href":"https:\/\/hawaiipublicschools.org\/sm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20165\/revisions\/20174"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hawaiipublicschools.org\/sm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20167"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hawaiipublicschools.org\/sm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20165"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hawaiipublicschools.org\/sm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20165"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hawaiipublicschools.org\/sm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20165"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}