Local apple bananas featured on Hawaiʻi public school breakfast menus

Throughout the month of February, Hawaiʻi public school cafeterias statewide were offered the opportunity to serve banana (mai’a) sheet pancakes for breakfast featuring locally grown apple bananas. 

The effort is part of the Department’s farm-to-school initiative which aims to enhance food sustainability in Hawai‘i and aligns with Act 175, which focuses on improving the health of students while supporting local farmers.

“I felt like it was the best breakfast that we’ve ever had over here…Probably because of the taste of the pancake and the type of banana it was… I feel like local bananas are the best out of all bananas,” said Kāneʻohe Elementary fifth grader Logan Park.

“I love that it’s local. We’re using what came from our land. It’s better, it tastes better, and it’s just all around coming from where we live. It’s our produce not shipped from other countries or other places,” said Marian Clark, a parent of a student at Kāneʻohe Elementary.

Hawaiʻi apple bananas are the main variety grown by local producers. An estimated 2,135 pounds of local apple bananas were distributed to serve 92 participating schools.

Hawaiʻi public schools are the state’s largest institutional consumer of food products, serving over 100,000 student meals a day. 

The Department continues to work closely with local vendors statewide to see how fresh local produce can be scaled across all schools in the future on a regular basis.