The Hawaiʻi Department of Education has seen a 20% decline in kids getting school breakfast and a 17% drop in school lunch, according to the Food Research and Action Center’s June survey.
The Large School District Report, which tracks state trends in school nutrition programs, surveyed 90 school districts in the U.S. The nonprofit compared figures in April and October 2022.
Researchers found that Hawai‘i is on par with other school districts across the country, seeing fewer children participating in their school food programs after a federal program that provided free meals to all students ended last summer.
Crystal FitzSimons, director of FRAC’s school and out-of-school time programs, said the findings were unsurprising.
“You see kids who are cost out of participating in the program,” she said. “There also have been a lot of challenges with the supply chain and staffing issues. A lot of school districts have been struggling, so it may impact the variety of meals that are being served and the ability of the staff to prepare meals.”
Hawai‘i is one of few states that allow students to be denied food if their parents fail to pay the lunch bills.
However, depending on their income, families may qualify for the DOE’s free and reduced-price lunch program — a grace period for students to receive school meals. A family of three must earn less than $37,167 a year to qualify for free school meals and $52,892 for reduced-price meals.
The state Legislature pushed for universal free school meals this year, but those measures failed to gain traction.
States that offer universal school meals are California, Colorado, Maine, Minnesota, Michigan, New Mexico and Vermont.
House Bill 540, introduced by Rep. Scot Matayoshi, would have required the DOE and public charter schools to provide students with free lunch and breakfast for the 2023-2024 school year.
The Senate Education Committee deferred after the DOE cited concerns about costs and economic hardships. At the same time, officials of the public charter schools said they struggled to find food vendors that would meet the requirements.
“It was a pretty new idea for Hawai‘i,” Matayoshi said. “When a money bill gets introduced, it doesn’t pass the first time. I was hoping it would have a better chance, but with the budget the way it is, it will be difficult for large budget bills to pass.”
The bill stalled this year, but Matayoshi said he plans to push for the bill next year.
