The Department of Education reported only a small uptick in how much local food it purchased during the 2024-25 school year, marking the third year the department has made little progress toward a legislative mandate to purchase significantly more local food by the end of the decade. 

Last year, 6.5% of the department’s food budget — roughly $5 million out of a $77 million budget — was spent on local ingredients, according to a recent report to the Legislature. The department spent 5.4% of its school meals budget on local ingredients in the 2023-24 academic year, and just over 6% the year before. 

Local meat made up the largest portion of DOE’s local food purchases last year, followed by fruit and vegetables. 

The department faces an ambitious goal of spending 30% of its food budget on local ingredients by 2030 but has fallen consistently short of its state-mandated targets to get there. Last year, the 10% of DOE’s food purchases were supposed to come from local sources, but the department didn’t come close – even when counting the purchase of local bottled water. 

School leaders say they can significantly ramp up their purchase of local ingredients in the next two years. In a December report to the Legislature, DOE projected it will spend 14% of its food budget on local ingredients for the current academic year and will increase that to 18% next year. 

The report did not say what those projections were based on and included few details on how DOE planned to double its spending in such a short time. As of November 2025, only 7% of school food was locally purchased, according to a recent DOE presentation to the Board of Education.

Department officials have said they can increase the purchase of local ingredients by developing stronger relationships with Hawaiʻi farmers and ranchers and debuting new menus featuring local produce. DOE is also relying on the construction of a centralized kitchen in Wahiawā to help schools meet their goals, although some advocates and lawmakers have previously questioned the facility’s ability to significantly increase the purchase of local ingredients. 

Last week, the state broke ground on the regional kitchen project, which is expected to open in fall 2027. DOE is looking to expand the model to a second site on Oʻahu as well as Kauaʻi, Maui, Molokaʻi and Big Island. 

Civil Beat’s education reporting is supported by a grant from Chamberlin Family Philanthropy, and “Data Dive” is supported in part by the Will J. Reid Foundation.