Food

Senate Bill 1186, which passed the conference committee process this week, seeks to create a “statewide interagency food systems coordination team” that would include leaders along the food supply chain — from farms to restaurants.

More Hawaiʻi families may soon be eligible for free school meals. A bill passed Thursday would allow students who qualify for reduced-priced meals to get them for free starting in July.

Dana Shapiro, the president and CEO of the Hawaiʻi ʻUlu Cooperative, said the organization shipped hundreds of pounds of breadfruit to the 60 or so schools for the program a few weeks ago.

Lawmakers deferred House Bill 428, which would have created a state “farm to families” program, because funding for the program was added to the state budget bill.

The Conversation's DW Gibson spoke with Matthew Loke, administrator of the state’s Agricultural Development Division, about the forces behind increased egg prices.

Manufacturing in Hawaiʻi is all about food. There’s a new facility on Oʻahu to help food entrepreneurs make and market their products. It's called the Wahiawā Value-Added Product Development Center. We get more on that story from Pacific Business News Editor in Chief Janis Magin.

We thought we'd check in to see how the headlines have been affecting your lives and your budgets, and what better way to do that than at the grocery store? In this ongoing series, HPR plans to go to various grocery stores and learn more about what people are seeing amid Trump's tariff hikes.

The state Department of Human Services said it has a 25% vacancy for eligibility workers and 50% for clerical staff at SNAP processing centers.

Recent cuts to the U.S. Department of Agriculture will impact some of Hawaiʻi's school lunch programs. The Conversation talked to Dean Uchida, Deputy Superintendent of Operations for the DOE, about how USDA funding cuts may impact Hawaiʻi's school lunch program.

Federal cuts and actions have already had “significant impacts” on the local food supply chain, as an estimated $88.5 million in federal funds meant for Hawaiʻi and Pacific region farmers and food system organizations have been frozen or eliminated, or have an uncertain future.