{"id":26172,"date":"2026-10-27T10:45:58","date_gmt":"2026-10-27T20:45:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hawaiipublicschools.org\/?p=26172"},"modified":"2026-10-27T10:55:46","modified_gmt":"2026-10-27T20:55:46","slug":"2026-local-beef","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hawaiipublicschools.org\/th\/2026-local-beef\/","title":{"rendered":"HIDOE brings more local beef to school meals through regional partnerships"},"content":{"rendered":"

HONOLULU \u2014 The Hawai\u02bbi State Department of Education (HIDOE) is expanding efforts to bring more locally sourced food to school meals by building regional partnerships that connect school cafeterias with producers in their communities. A partnership between Hawai\u02bbi Island schools and Parker Ranch is the first under this initiative, with additional regional sourcing opportunities in development on Maui and Kaua\u02bbi.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parker Ranch is supplying beef to schools across Kohala, Waikoloa, Waimea, the H\u0101m\u0101kua Coast and Hilo. The beef is featured in familiar school lunch favorites, including paniolo pasta, sloppy joe, chili, hamburger stew and chili cheese nachos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At Waimea Elementary School, students say they appreciate both the taste and the opportunity to eat locally raised beef.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe pasta is great… it\u2019s local, that\u2019s what I love about it,\u201d fourth grader Akea Ala said. \u201cIt’s better and more fresh.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His classmate, fourth grader Theo Smith, also noticed a difference. \u201cIt tastes better because I know it’s not processed and I can taste that it’s not processed meat,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Waimea Elementary School Food Services Manager Ilai\u02bbasi Tua, the partnership is already making a difference in the cafeteria.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a really big difference from the mainland beef to this grass-fed beef\u2026 the kids really love it,\u201d Tua said. \u201cJust being from a farm to this table, being right here in Waimea… I feel like it\u2019s a good thing for the DOE schools.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parker Ranch, one of the country\u2019s oldest cattle ranches, raises and processes beef on Hawai\u02bbi Island, keeping production close to the communities its products serve.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really neat to provide beef that we source and raise here locally. It\u2019s processed here on the island and never leaves, and we\u2019re able to help kids learn more about food production here in their own community,\u201d said Jacob Tavares, Parker Ranch\u2019s livestock business operations representative.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tavares said partnerships with public institutions and large distributors can help strengthen Hawai\u02bbi\u2019s food system and expand access to locally produced food.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFood security and food sovereignty are such a big part of the conversation right now. We\u2019re trying to be part of that by creating partnerships with institutions and large distributors to help ensure local people have access to local food,\u201d Tavares said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since the partnership began, HIDOE schools have served nearly 8,000 pounds of locally raised beef from Parker Ranch to Hawai\u02bbi Island students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As HIDOE works to develop similar regional sourcing partnerships on Maui and Kaua\u02bbi, the Department is exploring opportunities to incorporate more local products into school meals based on what is available within each region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By building reliable connections between local producers and school cafeterias, the Department aims to make locally sourced foods a more regular part of students\u2019 meals while supporting the state\u2019s agricultural industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

HONOLULU \u2014 The Hawai\u02bbi State Department of Education (HIDOE) is expanding efforts to bring more locally sourced food to school meals by building regional partnerships that connect school cafeterias with producers in their communities. A partnership between Hawai\u02bbi Island schools and Parker Ranch is the first under this initiative, with additional regional sourcing opportunities in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":26171,"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":"856,893,1022,1619,1622,1623","_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-26172","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\/P3352814-1024x683.jpg",1024,683,true],"author_info":{"display_name":"Chanel Honda","author_link":"https:\/\/hawaiipublicschools.org\/th\/author\/chanel-hondak12-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":381,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":21,"category_count":381,"category_description":"","cat_name":"News","category_nicename":"news","category_parent":0}],"tag_info":false,"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-11-03 14:09:46","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"post_status","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hawaiipublicschools.org\/th\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26172","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hawaiipublicschools.org\/th\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hawaiipublicschools.org\/th\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hawaiipublicschools.org\/th\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hawaiipublicschools.org\/th\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26172"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hawaiipublicschools.org\/th\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26172\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hawaiipublicschools.org\/th\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26171"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hawaiipublicschools.org\/th\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26172"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hawaiipublicschools.org\/th\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26172"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hawaiipublicschools.org\/th\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26172"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}