As Hawaiʻi public schools welcome students back, school cafeterias are offering more choices at mealtime, including new breakfast and lunch options featuring local ingredients and flavors.
This school year, students statewide will have two lunch entrée choices — one featuring an animal protein and one vegetarian option. While some schools offered multiple entrée choices last year, the expanded selection will now be available statewide.
“This year, we have two entrée choices at lunch, so students can choose what they’d like to eat And that’s really important so that we’re reaching as many students as possible and giving them the learning experience about different kinds of foods,” said Anneliese Tanner, school food services administrator for the Hawaiʻi State Department of Education. “That way, if our students don’t like one item, they have another choice and can always find something to eat.”
The Department also is introducing new dishes and expanding the regular menu as part of its ongoing effort to incorporate more Hawaiʻi-grown ingredients and locally inspired flavors into school meals. In partnership with Kapiʻolani Community College’s Culinary Institute of the Pacific and the Culinary Institute of America, the Department has been redeveloping menu offerings with a focus on local ingredients and student preferences.
New and expanded menu offerings this school year include:
Breakfast:
- ʻUala swirl bun
- ʻĀina breakfast hash
- Banana pancake with haupia sauce
Lunch:
- Loco moco with ʻulu gravy
- Chicken papaya soup
- Island chicken wrap
- Honey ginger chicken or tofu
- ʻĀina pizza
- Tofu salad
- Ramen salad
- Local rainbow salad
- Local bok choy as a side
The Department will also continue offering poi as a regular statewide menu item, following its expansion into school meals last school year. Other dishes that were introduced as special monthly offerings, including rainbow salad Và chicken papaya soup, will also become part of the regular menu rotation.
Students have helped shape the new offerings by tasting dishes and providing feedback during the menu redevelopment process. Culinary teams used their input to refine recipes, and select dishes were piloted over the summer ahead of their statewide introduction.
At Kalihi Waena Elementary, students were among those who got an early taste of the new ʻuala swirl bun, made with local sweet potato.
“It was very delicious, and I would like to try it again,” said fifth-grader Zyrah Batara.
Her classmate Troy Paleafei also enjoyed the new breakfast offering. “It has one of the best buns ever with the white sauce and with the sweet potato,” he said.
For fifth-grader Naylast Suda, the ʻuala swirl bun was an exciting new item to try. “It was good and it was my first time trying that,” Suda said. “When I tasted it, it was so good because I love trying new things.”
The expanded menu builds on the Department’s efforts to increase local purchasing and introduce students to foods that reflect Hawaiʻi’s culture and agriculture.
Current Hawaiʻi-grown ingredients featured in school meals include papaya, oranges, pumpkin, pineapple, banana, breadfruit, green onions, bok choy, cucumber, lettuce, sweet potato and taro.
“We’re working with a variety of vendors, with small farms and big farms, so that we can bring as much local produce and local products to our students as possible,” Tanner said.
The Department is also working to regionalize some purchases, including sourcing local beef for school meals from farms on the same island as the schools they serve.
The new school year also brings expanded access to free school meals. More students from ALICE (Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed) families will qualify for free meals, helping ensure more Hawaiʻi public school students have access to breakfast and lunch during the school day.
Hawaiʻi’s public schools serve more than 100,000 meals each day, making the Department of Education one of the state’s largest food purchasers. Through expanded partnerships with local farmers and vendors, the Department continues to increase the amount of Hawaiʻi-grown food served in school cafeterias.
