Just over 8% of food in Hawaiʻi public school meals is sourced locally, but some expect that number to quickly increase thanks to the state Department of Education’s new regional kitchen project.
The kitchen in central Oʻahu’s Whitmore Village will be a hub where school meal ingredients can be prepared and shipped to each school for storage and heating when appropriate.
Sean Tajima, assistant superintendent of HIDOE’s Office of Campus Operations and Support, said he’s hopeful that the centralized kitchen will drastically increase the amount of local food that can be purchased — a move that will be needed to meet the department’s goal of 30% locally sourced food in school meals by 2030.
“I think this is the highest (percentage) we've ever been at — I'm glad we're making some headway with this,” Tajima said. “The regional kitchen is really going to be the catalyst to bring all of this together right now.”
Tajima said local sourcing comes with its challenges. Farmers have to deliver their products to individual schools that order different amounts of each crop. Tajima believes the regional kitchen will bypass these issues because there will be a set quantity delivered to one central kitchen.
“This allows one place for us to purchase on a larger scale. I think we're on a positive trajectory right now, so we're really looking forward to the regional kitchen opening so we can scale that (goal) a lot faster,” Tajima said.
Anneliese Tanner, a school food program administrator at HIDOE, said that on top of increasing locally sourced ingredients, she believes the kitchen will cut down on food waste, boost meal participation among students, and increase the amount of meals made from scratch. Just over 30% of HIDOE school meals are scratch-cooked, and the team is hoping to raise that number to over 85%.
Tajima said the regional kitchen will serve the Leilehua School complex, then expand by five new schools each quarter. At full operation, the kitchen is expected to serve roughly 60,000 meals a day to over 80 schools on Oʻahu.
“The grand vision is to have multiple regional kitchens across the state, which would be two on Oʻahu, one on Kauaʻi, one on Maui, one on Molokaʻi, and two on the Big Island,” Tajima said.
The project’s team is waiting on approval from the state Legislature for more than 40 new positions for the kitchen. It’s also starting to search for a regional kitchen manager, who will oversee all operations.
The kitchen’s groundbreaking and blessing are scheduled for Jan. 29. It is expected to start operations in June of 2027.
