In the first months of this second Trump administration, there are fears about drastic cuts to federal programs as the president seeks to make good on his campaign promise to reduce the size of the federal government.
One of the more-discussed targets is the U.S. Department of Education, but cuts to the U.S. Department of Agriculture will impact some of Hawaiʻi's school lunch programs.
Dean Uchida, deputy superintendent of operations for the Hawaiʻi Department of Education, oversees the School Food Services branch. He took over in January and has been working toward the state's goal of providing 30% local food in student meals by 2030.
However, the USDA's Local Food for Schools Cooperative Agreement Program and Local Food Purchase Assistance Cooperative Agreement Program have been canceled — that's some $1 billion. Hawaiʻi was initially awarded $3 million through the Local Food for Schools program.
According to a recent report from the Oʻahu Resource Conservation and Development Council, those funds have thus been eliminated.
Uchida said the cancellation of the programs has affected numerous states. He was on a Zoom call with USDA officials.
"Everybody was saying they were sad to see it go because it had created a good pipeline for the local farming community into the schools," he said.
He shared the state is still trying to meet the local food-sourcing goal and is speaking with distributors to ensure there are enough farmers who can supply the quantity of food needed.
"I think last year we're a little below 6% — five point something, and so we got five years to get it up to 30%. That's kind of what we've been focusing on right now," he said.
A team from Hawaiʻi led by Lt. Gov. Sylvia Luke is in Washington, D.C., this week to meet with USDA officials as part of a policy summit. Luke is there to argue Hawaiʻi's case as a unique island state with a centralized, statewide education department — in hopes of reducing the impact.
Uchida said the state DOE provided the D.C. team with some USDA-related issues the department is concerned about, such as providing Hawaiʻi with procurement exemptions.
"There's a lot of stuff that I guess other states don't have to deal with, like purchasing poi, limu, tofu and stuff, right — I mean, how do we get that, because the list that USDA, they have to approve the product-type in order to get it on a procurement list," he said. "Poi isn't an approved product right now, so we're trying to get that approved."
The volume of food that the DOE requires to feed students — 100,000 meals a day — would create market demand for local farmers, Uchida said.
"If we can say, 'This is what we need when we need it,' we're sending a signal to the farming community that, you know, we're going to buy if you plant this stuff," he told HPR. "I think that's the game changer is that we can control the market by ensuring that whatever they grow, we're going to buy."
Uchida said the free and reduced lunch program has not yet been cut or impacted, but the state DOE is tracking new developments.
"It's a very stressful time right now, I think throughout the country, with all the changes that are happening in D.C. But we're trying to keep our finger on the pulse, especially with USDA and how it affects our school lunch program."
This interview aired on The Conversation on March 24, 2025. The Conversation airs weekdays at 11 a.m.
