The farm-to-school initiative is set to receive a significant boost in the coming months, perhaps as soon as the next school year, after a proposal to greatly increase food-purchasing latitude and shred red tape sailed through the Legislature. House Bill 1293, which would provide substantial exemptions to the state Department of Education’s (DOE) procurement requirements with hopes of bolstering local food sourcing, is now sitting on Gov. Josh Green’s desk. The governor should ratify the legislation, and push DOE officials to — finally — show progress on goals to spend a higher percentage of annual funds on produce from Hawaii.
HB 1293 strongly indicates where lawmakers come down on the issue, and where they land should come as no surprise. It’s a rare opportunity, politically: acting in favor of the bill helps children, builds up the working class and contributes to state food resiliency in one fell swoop.
Indeed, testimony submitted ahead of a Senate Ways and Means (WAM) Committee hearing in April did not contain one single piece of opposition, and many asked that small purchases up to $100,000 be exempted from electronic procurement requirements, or four times the current limit of $25,000. This figure was echoed by state schools Superintendent Keith Hayashi, as well as the State Procurement Office, Hawai‘i Public Health Institute and Hawai‘i Youth Food Council.
Not only did HB 1293 sail through WAM, but an amended version had no trouble garnering unanimous support from the Senate — with a whopping $250,000 procurement-exemption cap. That allows the DOE much more purchasing power flexibility, lowering hurdles to reach a local sourcing mandate imposed four years ago. The bill also spurs change by requiring at least three written quotes for purchases, and two quotes for certain rural communities.
Signed in 2021, Act 175 handed reins of a farm-to-school pilot project to DOE with provisions that 30% of schools’ food come from local producers by 2030. Benefits of the program, from more nutritious student meals to a shot in the arm for local businesses, greatly outweigh institutional drawbacks of retooling an existing purchasing pipeline and striking new vendor deals. Backing wide consensus that local, farm-fresh food is superior to the imported goods that currently make up a bulk of DOE’s annual outlay is the continued outpouring of political will from the Legislature. And it would be unwise to fritter away such largess.
However, despite an allotted 9-year ramp-up period, it appears that DOE is struggling to formulate concrete plans that will bring its massive buying apparatus into accordance with the law. A year after Act 175 was signed, DOE spent 6.1% of its total food purchasing allotment on local foods. That portion decreased to $4.5 million, or 5.4% of total food buys, in the 2023-2024 school year. Clearly, there are inefficiencies that must be rectified.
A side note: Act 144 from 2022 cites a lowered sourcing requirement, down to 18% by 2030. For now, that’s a moot point, as the department is not close to making appreciable progress toward fulfilling either requirement. Therein lies the problem. Lawmakers, farmers, trade groups and advocates all exhibit a powerful willingness to make farm-to-school happen. That momentum stops when DOE is unable to translate budgetary freedoms into action.
As the public regularly witnesses, most recently with school bus availability, DOE has suffered its fair share of administrative debacles. After four years of touting a will to comply with farm-to-school, but little progress to show, the capabilities of department heads must be questioned. Working through an entrenched and sprawling food services system is no small task, but the DOE has been given tools with which to carry out its entrusted mission, and it must execute.
