Senate education committee recommends passage of resolutions urging DOE to detail true cost of school meals

The Senate Committee on Education voted to recommend passage of Senate Concurrent Resolution 134 and Senate Resolution 113, which urge the Department of Education to provide a detailed report to the Legislature on the true cost of producing school meals and how those costs are broken down.

The resolutions seek a finer accounting of meal costs — for example separating labor, ingredient, supply, operational and distribution expenses — to increase transparency and help prevent unnecessary price increases for families. Committee members and advocates said a clearer breakdown is needed to evaluate proposals such as expanding free school meals.

Department of Education Deputy Superintendent Neil Chita told the committee that the department “stands on its written testimony,” and that the school food service branch already publishes quarterly and annual fiscal reports that are publicly available. Chita said those reports currently capture the overall costs, and that the department focuses primarily on the cost of food. “I would have to go back and see if we can break it down that far,” he said when asked whether the department can provide the more granular line-item detail called for in the resolutions.

Public-health and nutrition advocates testified in favor of the measures. Nate Hicks of the Hawaii Public Health Institute told the committee the group supports free school meals for all students and said keeping production costs down helps avoid shifting higher costs to families. Angela Melody Young of CARES, speaking in a comments-only role, said transparency is important but warned that producing the requested reports could be an operational burden; she suggested training school teams to track expenses at the school-complex level as a more feasible approach.

Committee members pressed the department on whether it has conducted a detailed analysis of cost drivers. The Department said it has identified rising food costs as a principal driver and acknowledged its budget was “flat” while food prices increased; the department said it has not completed the line-by-line operational accounting as requested in the resolutions. Committee members also asked about the share of meals served that are free or reduced-price: the department said roughly 45% of meals served daily are free and about 8% are reduced-price, and that the system serves about 4,000 meals per day and serves approximately 55,000 students in the public schools.

Lawmakers asked about funding implications for expanding free meals statewide if federal reimbursements change. The department said it is working to estimate costs for making more categories of students eligible for free meals, and that any state-level cost would likely require general fund appropriation in a future session. Chita said USDA teams are reviewing the state’s cost and process to determine whether federal reimbursement could be increased, and that the department is monitoring those discussions.

The committee’s recommendation to pass both measures was recorded as follows: Chair Kidani — aye; Vice Chair Kim Namazitakabehi — aye; Senator Hashimoto — aye; Senator Kanuha — aye; Senator Decoy — aye. The committee recommended passage of SCR 134 and SR 113, unamended.

The Department of Education indicated it will follow up on whether it can produce the more granular cost breakdown requested by the resolutions and will supply additional data on federal reimbursement percentages and student-income distributions if available.