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Students at six Maui public schools affected by the August wildfires will be eligible to receive free school meals for at least the rest of the year, following a request from the Hawaii public schools and the state’s congressional delegation, and approval from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
USDA has granted the Hawaii Department of Education with the flexibility to provide K-12 students free school meals at four schools in Lahaina — King Kamehameha III Elementary, Princess Nahienaena Elementary, Lahaina Intermediate and Lahainaluna High schools — as well as Kihei Elementary and Kula Elementary schools.
The six schools are now qualified for the federal Community Eligibility Provision program, “which enables schools that predominantly serve low-income children to offer free, nutritious school meals to all students through the National School Lunch Program and the School Breakfast Program without collecting school meal applications and regardless of household income,” according to a DOE statement.
DOE officials said they previously relied on private philanthropic support to provide free school meals to all students, and staff in need, at the four Lahaina schools.
Before the fires, the four Lahaina schools had a combined enrollment of just over 3,000; Kula Elementary had nearly 400 students and Kihei Elementary had more than 700.
But student counts have shifted widely since August. The University of Hawaii at Manoa Maui Wildfire Exposure Cohort Study reports among its findings that 58% of study participants lost their jobs because of the wildfires, and 65% are in temporary homes.