在參與活動的學校中，哈納雷波伊飲料公司及其哈納雷農場供應商將提供超過 11,800 個 4 盎司波伊飲料杯，相當於近 3,000 磅波伊飲料。
To help increase local menu offerings in school lunches, three dozen public schools on Hawai‘i Island, Maui, Kaua‘i, and Moloka‘i will be offering fresh local poi as an accompanying lunch menu item to students and staff this month in honor of May Day.
在參與活動的學校中，哈納雷波伊飲料公司及其哈納雷農場供應商將提供超過 11,800 個 4 盎司波伊飲料杯，相當於近 3,000 磅波伊飲料。
週五，考艾島卡瑪卡赫萊伊酋長中學的午餐菜單供應了 poi，以補充其午餐菜單，包括卡魯阿豬肉、捲心菜、洛米番茄、糙米、毛豆和菠蘿塊。
學生的反應非常正面。
“Hanalei Poi and poi in general is like one of my favorite foods so when I saw it on the menu, I was really excited,” 7th grader Kelston Apilado said. “I like local ingredients because you know where it’s from, and you know it’s fresh and good.”
酋長卡瑪卡赫萊中學食品服務經理安東尼·克魯茲補充道：“他們每天都想吃！我們這裡有很多不同國籍的學生，有些人從來沒有嚐過 poi……其他知道這是什麼的孩子當然想吃第二份。”
該部門的「從農場到學校」計畫旨在提高夏威夷的食品可持續性，並與 第175號法案, which focuses on improving the health of students while supporting local farmers.
“It benefits the community, the students and also the local businesses,” Cruz said. “For me, being born and raised here on Kaua‘i, I support the businesses 100% and if we can use more businesses, that would be great.”
Hanalei Poi Company hopes poi becomes a lunch menu staple for its health benefits and as a way to support local farmers.
“We are grateful and excited to supply fresh Hanalei Poi to Hawai‘i students and hope that it can become a staple on the school lunch menu as it is a healthy and nutritious locally grown food,” Michaela Fitzgerald of Hanalei Poi Company said. “Supplying poi to Hawai‘i schools also helps to encourage farmers to continue to grow more taro into the future.”
Last year the Department rolled out its first offering of fresh local poi in over a decade to O‘ahu schools, serving over 23,000 4-ounce servings from Pomai Kulolo LLC. Due to procurement limitations, participating O’ahu schools this year incorporated local u’ala (sweet potato) into their lunch menus in lieu of poi.
“The Department has synergistic goals to increase the amount of nutritious local food items to students, appropriately expend more funds in support of local suppliers and produce, educate students about local food resources, and educate farmers and vendors about state procurement compliance,” Lindsay Rodrigues, Hawai‘i State Department of Education school food services program administrator, said.
為了促進在本次 poi 活動之前對學生的教育，該部門與「從農場到學校網絡」和「從花園到學校網絡」的領導人舉行了一系列會議，旨在教育教師如何利用芋頭作為工具來積極影響營養飲食模式，並加強與種植芋頭、紅薯和麵包果的鄰近農民的聯繫。
The Department is the state’s largest institutional consumer of food products, serving over 100,000 student meals a day and 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.
A Request for Information (RFI) for potential vendors was posted by the Department this past October, and a subsequent Request of Proposals (RFP) to provide HIDOE school cafeterias with local produce, proteins and packaged foods, will be released next.
