Awards issued prior to january 20, 2025, were funded under previous administrations and may not reflect the priorities and policies of the current administration.** hawaii institute of pacific…

Awards issued prior to january 20, 2025, were funded under previous administrations and may not reflect the priorities and policies of the current administration.** hawaii institute of pacific agriculture's seed to service: a problem-solving approach towards a sustainable local food system project is an innovative agricultural program designed to provide students with a full spectrum hawaii-centric food-system-based education highlighting the cultivation, meal preparation, and sale and distribution of locally grown produce to inspire new generations of farmers and producers while strengthening local food systems.hawaii's farmers' average age range is 45-60, with few new farmers entering the workforce due to a low-profit mythos, lack of hawaii-centric technical knowledge, and lack of agriculture-based educational resources. To combat this issue, HIP AG will collaborate with the center for getting things started to pilot an agriculture-based curriculum at kohala high school (KHS).leveraging the existing agriculture food systems natural resources (AFNR) classes at KHS, HIP educators will instruct students in the garden and classroom. Through this instruction, AFNR students will cultivate produce to supply the KHS extra-curricular future farmers of america (FFA) club, wherein participating students will receive culinary instructions at the campus-certified kitchen. The meals produced will demonstrate the possibilities for healthier dietary cafeteria meal options. Students and families will be invited to pick up packaged seed to service meals via an annual meal drive-thru.HIP AG will utilize several methods to produce data, determine final results, and inform our target audience. These methods include survey data on best practice adoption, teacher workshop pre-and post-surveys, participant surveys, student participants' products, observations, and focus groups. The qualitative and quantitative results collected will be merged to determine where they converge and diverge, providing greater insight into the sustainability of the farm-to-school movement in hawai'i. The HIP AG team has chosen this approach based on past experience conducting similar programs at KHS. Through these experiences, HIP educators have established a baseline for best practices and will continue to build program standards for seed to service upon this foundation. ?