{"id":23666,"date":"2026-09-29T09:54:54","date_gmt":"2026-09-29T19:54:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hawaiipublicschools.org\/?p=23666"},"modified":"2026-09-29T09:54:58","modified_gmt":"2026-09-29T19:54:58","slug":"2026-hawaii-pineapple","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hawaiipublicschools.org\/zh\/2026-hawaii-pineapple\/","title":{"rendered":"O\u02bbahu public schools begin rollout of fresh, Hawai\u02bbi-grown pineapple in school meals"},"content":{"rendered":"

HONOLULU \u2014 Hawai\u02bbi public schools are beginning to serve fresh, locally grown pineapple from Dole Plantation as part of their school meals, giving students more opportunities to enjoy Hawai\u02bbi-grown produce.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More than 2,100 pounds of Hawai\u02bbi-grown pineapple have been distributed to participating O\u02bbahu schools as part of the initial rollout. Twenty-one schools are currently offering the locally grown fruit, with additional schools expected to join over the next month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Schools are serving the pineapple in two ways: as a fruit side at breakfast and lunch, and in the relish of a new island chicken wrap for lunch. The wrap is one of several new dishes developed through the Hawai\u02bbi State Department of Education\u2019s partnership with Kapi\u02bbolani Community College\u2019s Culinary Institute of the Pacific and the Culinary Institute of America to redevelop school menu offerings<\/a> around local ingredients and student preferences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At Mililani Middle School \u2014 the Department\u2019s largest middle school in the state that serves approximately 1,000 to 1,500 lunches daily \u2014 students got a taste of the new chicken pineapple wrap.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI thought it was very good, and it tasted very fresh,\u201d seventh grader Olivia Manglallan said. \u201cIt was the perfect amount of pineapple. You could really taste it, and it was really juicy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Her classmate, Maila Kuamo\u02bbo, said the combination was a fun twist on a familiar favorite. \u201cI really like pineapple, and I thought that it was good to put the pineapple in \u2014 kind of like pineapple on pizza, but then you put it in a burrito-style sandwich,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Mililani Middle School School Food Services Manager Cherisse Chun, offering Hawai\u02bbi-grown pineapple is an exciting step toward bringing more local food into students\u2019 meals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPreviously, we\u2019ve been able to get Dole pineapple from the Philippines, so it\u2019s really exciting now that we can get it from Hawai\u02bbi,\u201d Chun said. \u201cPineapple is one of the more widely accepted fruits among our students here, so being able to offer them the local variant is really exciting.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Department plans to expand its local pineapple offering to schools statewide as supply allows. The effort is part of HIDOE\u2019s broader goal to increase local food purchasing by 2030 and incorporate more Hawai\u02bbi-grown products into school meals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re really excited that we can now offer students the local variation of the different fruits and vegetables they\u2019ve become accustomed to here in Hawai\u02bbi,\u201d Chun said. \u201cIt\u2019s great to support the local economy while also serving local produce to our students.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hawai\u02bbi public schools are among the state\u2019s largest institutional food consumers, serving more than 100,000 student meals each day. The Department continues to work with local farmers, producers and vendors statewide to expand the regular use of fresh, locally grown food in school cafeterias.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

HONOLULU \u2014 Hawai\u02bbi public schools are beginning to serve fresh, locally grown pineapple from Dole Plantation as part of their school meals, giving students more opportunities to enjoy Hawai\u02bbi-grown produce. More than 2,100 pounds of Hawai\u02bbi-grown pineapple have been distributed to participating O\u02bbahu schools as part of the initial rollout. Twenty-one schools are currently offering […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":23667,"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":[30,21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23666","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\/2026-09-21-Mililani-Middle-Island-Chicken-Wrap-P3361938-1024x683.jpg",1024,683,true],"author_info":{"display_name":"Sara Miyazono","author_link":"https:\/\/hawaiipublicschools.org\/zh\/author\/sara-miyazonok12-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":372,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":21,"category_count":372,"category_description":"","cat_name":"News","category_nicename":"news","category_parent":0}],"tag_info":false,"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-10-06 13:34:30","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"post_status","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hawaiipublicschools.org\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23666","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hawaiipublicschools.org\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hawaiipublicschools.org\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hawaiipublicschools.org\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hawaiipublicschools.org\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23666"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hawaiipublicschools.org\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23666\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hawaiipublicschools.org\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23667"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hawaiipublicschools.org\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23666"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hawaiipublicschools.org\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23666"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hawaiipublicschools.org\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23666"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}