“All of us working together ensures that we’re able to provide for our students healthy, nutritious, great tasting meals that students will enjoy.”
HONOLULU (KHON2) — In an effort to provide high-quality and safe meals for students, the Hawaii State Department of Education will implement the USDA food safety standards for their produce vendors.
The update to the program will go into effect for the 2025-2026 school year starting July 1, 2025, to ensure Hawaii public school students have healthy and safe meals.
This means produce farms will need to be certified under the “Good Agriculture Practices Standards” to provide consistent quality, healthier meals and streamlined food safety.
We’re very fortunate that we have a partnership with the Farm Bureau and the Department of Agriculture that provides the support to local farmers in attaining that GAP certification. All of us working together ensures that we’re able to provide for our students healthy, nutritious, great tasting meals that students will enjoy.
Superintendent Keith Hayashi
Officials said students and families can expect produce in schools to be “sourced from farms adhering to the highest agriculture standards and will “improve the Department’s food safety protocols, making the processes for procurement and handing more efficient and secure.”
“We support our local farms through our distributors. This GAP standard ensures we have high quality, great tasting locally sourced produce for our students for their breakfast and lunch. We serve over one hundred thousand meals at the Department of Education and we are committed to supporting our students and their health,” Hayashi added.
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Both the Department of Education and its suppliers will be in close contact as each farm completes its GAP-certified audit process.
Vendors will complete a GAP audit by a USDA-qualified inspector and must maintain annual audits to maintain eligibility.