STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2370

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 2928

S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Twenty-Ninth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2018

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committees on Agriculture and Environment and Education, to which was referred S.B. No. 2928 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO THE HAWAII FARM TO SCHOOL PROGRAM,"

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to establish a three-year farm to school grant pilot program in the Department of Agriculture.

Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Agriculture; Department of Education; University of Hawai‘i System; State Procurement Office; American Heart Association; Hawai‘i Farms to School Hui; Hawaii State Teachers Association; Ulupono Initiative; Maui School Garden Network; Mālama Kaua‘i; Kōkua Hawai‘i Foundation; Hawaii Primary Care Association; Hawaii Cattlemen's Council, Inc.; Māla‘ai: The Culinary Garden of Waimea Middle School on Hawaii Island; Hawai‘i Pacific Health; Local Food Coalition; Hawaiian Affairs Caucus of the Democratic Party of Hawai‘i; Hawaii Floriculture & Nursery Association; Ka Ohana O Na Pua; Hawaiian Civic Club of Honolulu; O‘ahu County Committee on Legislative Priorities of the Democratic Party of Hawai‘i; and nine individuals. Your Committees received comments on this measure from the Department of Health.

Your Committees find that farm to school activities support a nutritious school food environment and that more than eighty-five percent of the youth in Hawaii attend public schools. Students who participate in farm to school activities are more likely to be familiar with, have a preference for, and consume more fruits and vegetables at school and at home, thereby establishing healthy behaviors at an early age that may prevent the onset of chronic diseases and other health conditions later in life. Your Committees further find that participation in the farm to school program may be financially challenging for many farmers due to the high costs of compliance with federal law and regulations regarding food safety.

Your Committees also find that eighty-eight percent of Hawaii's K-12 public non-charter schools have gardens, which range in their levels of quality, teacher and student involvement, and curricular integration. These programs range in size from individual planter boxes to large-scale school food farms and may or may not have a dedicated, trained, paid garden educator to support them. Your Committees find that the Department of Education's ‘Aina Pono Farm to School Program aims to systematically increase state purchasing of local food for school menus; however, the full benefits of a farm to school program are only realized when high quality, well-rounded programs are in place, which include school gardens and relevant educational opportunities for all students. The Department of Agriculture farm to school program enables state efforts to go beyond the ‘Aina Pono Farm to School Program by:

(1) Increasing the procurement of locally grown foods for school meals and other state agencies;

(2) Strengthening agriculture education for the development of future farmers;

(3) Collecting statewide data via the Hawaii Farm to School Census;

(4) Ensuring food safety practices on farms and in schools; and

(5) Building inter-agency collaboration and public-private partnerships.

Your Committees conclude that a farm to school grant program is essential to the development and sustainability of successful school-level farm to school programs that provide a direct benefit to students and communities while ultimately ensuring the long term success of state-level farm to school efforts.

Your Committees have amended this measure by:

(1) Deleting the appropriation for administrative costs of the pilot program;

(2) Deleting the appropriation amount for the continuance of the Hawaii farm to school program and allocating unspecified portions of that amount for the farm to school coordinator position and for administrative expenses for the Hawaii farm to school program; and

(3) Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity and consistency.

As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Agriculture and Environment and Education that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2928, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2928, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Agriculture and Environment and Education,

________________________________ MICHELLE N. KIDANI, Chair

________________________________ MIKE GABBARD, Chair