Hawaiʻi public schools expand local menu offerings with poi

As part of the Hawaiʻi State Department of Education’s continued commitment to farm-to-school initiatives and student wellness, a local staple is being added to the regular rotation of school meals — fresh, locally sourced poi.

While poi has previously been featured through small purchase procurements for special meal events, this marks the first statewide procurement under a regular HIDOE contract. Vendors HPC Foods and Aloha ʻĀina Poi Company have been supplying schools with poi this school year. 

“We’re really excited to have the first statewide procurement of poi, meaning we’ll have poi on the menu regularly across the state,” HIDOE School Food Services Administrator Anneliese Tanner said. “All of our students will get to experience poi and get familiar with it or have what they eat at home on the menu.”

Poi is currently featured as a key ingredient in the new kalo yogurt bowl parfait, a breakfast item that blends traditional flavors with a local twist. For lunch, schools are serving poi alongside their kalua pork and cabbage and kalua pork sandwich menu items, with additional menu pairings in development for the upcoming school year.

At Waikīkī Elementary School, students were impressed with the new kalo bowl and enthusiastic about the addition of local poi to their school meals.

“I thought the breakfast was really good because I liked all the flavors with the poi, the yogurt and the pineapple,” fifth-grader Myriam Sugiyama-Bakrim said.

“It was very healthy and nutritious,” fifth grader Qacy Quaccia said. “The poi went really well with the yogurt and the kalo on top was like the cherry on top.”

For some students, the dish also offered a first introduction to poi.

“It was really good because I had never tried poi before,” fifth-grader Isiss Ho said. “It tasted like smashed kalo and went really well with the yogurt — it was a good combination.”

Students also recognized the importance of incorporating local ingredients into their meals.

“I think it’s a really good idea to have poi in school because it’s local and fresh,” said fourth-grader Astrid Roman. “It doesn’t have preservatives or bad ingredients — it’s just natural from kalo.”

Fifth-grader Levi Dudoit emphasized the connection to local agriculture and community.

“I think it will make people feel better, and it will taste better, because they’re going to know where it’s from,” he said. “They’ll be familiar with the land and farms it comes from. I think it’s a really, really good idea.”

The Department intends to continue offering poi as a regular menu item moving forward. Expanding access to locally produced poi is one of many efforts supporting HIDOE’s goal of increasing local food purchasing by 2030.

Hawaiʻi public schools are among the state’s largest institutional food consumers, serving more than 100,000 student meals each day. The Department continues to collaborate with local vendors statewide to expand the regular use of fresh, locally grown produce in school cafeterias.