This project improved access to local foods and agriculture education in Hawaii’s family child care homes by providing comprehensive Farm to CACFP/Farm to Keiki programming support, including:

● 195 child care providers participated in professional development webinars and received over 293 Department of Human Services professional development certificate hours.

• 19 professional development webinars (statewide and island-specific)

● 2,027 Farm to Keiki learning packets were sent to providers and adult members (November ’21 – April ’22)

• Included a highlighted local food of the month, gardening how-to, wellness guidelines recommendations, local food sourcing information, and family engagement ideas. 

● Launched the Local Food Challenge! Participating family child care providers served locally grown foods 9,239 times from mid-September 2021 – April 2022!

• Total of 333 local food challenge entires over the 7 months (some participants participated each month)!
•  741 unique locally grown foods were served throughout the challenge! Some were grown in their gardens 🙂

● Provided over $5,000 of farm to CACFP materials to participating providers

• Keiki-sized gardening and cooking supplies, and gift cards to food hubs, grocery, or garden stores. 
• Locally-grown seeds from the Hawaii Seed Growers Network.

The success of this pilot program was deeply rooted in the passion of our providers. Those who participated are going above and beyond to give Hawaii’s children the healthiest start in life possible… and one that is deeply connected to our local food systems, nature/’āina and community. 

This project was made possible by the generosity and dedication of our project Key Partners: 

Tiana Kamen and Annalea Brown Clay – Farm to Keiki

Jordan Smith – Hawaii Department of Health 

Angela Choy Miyashiro, Jaime Goya and Mary-Ann Nemoto – Learning to Grow

Natalie Tang and the statewide Food Monitors- PATCH

Fran Becker – Na Lei Wili Area Health Education Coordinator (Fiscal Sponsor)

This project was generously funded at least in part with federal funds by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) through a USDA Farm to School Program Grant Award.