Department of Education serves classic Filipino dish for farm-to-school initiative

Public schools in Kauaʻi and across the state were served chicken papaya soup—a classic Filipino dish known as tinola—for lunch this September, using locally sourced bok choy and green papaya.

More than 2,000 pounds of local bok choy and green papaya were distributed to the 75 participating schools. While the traditional dish was unfamiliar to many students, it brought familiar flavors of comfort food that they often eat at home.

The effort is part of the Department of Education’s farm-to-school initiative, aimed at enhancing food sustainability in Hawaiʻi and aligning with the goals of Act 175 to improve student health while supporting local farmers.

The dish was new to many students at Alvah Scott Elementary on Oʻahu but provided familiar flavors of comfort food from home.

“I thought it was a very unique dish,” sixth grader Jayden Fukuhara said. “I’ve had something similar my grandma has made for me…I thought it tasted very good.”

Sixth grader Chase Kim Han agreed: “I thought it was really good and I really enjoyed it. It kinda tasted like miso soup.”

In addition to bringing a locally sourced, homestyle meal to students, the dish is nutritionally beneficial—bok choy is rich in vitamins K, C, and A, as well as folate, calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, and potassium. Green papaya is low in sugar and calories and rich in vitamins C, B, potassium, and fiber.

The cafeteria staff at Alvah Scott were excited to offer this dish.

“This is the first time we ever served this dish,” Alvah Scott cook Joe Esta said. “Especially for the kids. They always like something new on the menu. So we were excited to make it for them.”

Hawaiʻi public schools are one of the state’s largest institutional consumers of food products, serving more than 100,000 student meals a day.

The Department of Education continues to work closely with local vendors statewide to scale fresh local produce across all schools regularly in the future.