The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced that it is granting the Hawaiʻi Department of Education (HIDOE) with the flexibility to provide K-12 students with free school meals at six Maui schools for the remainder of the 2023-2024 school year.

The six schools include four in Lahaina—King Kamehameha III Elementary, Princess Nahienaena Elementary, Lahaina Intermediate, Lahainaluna High—as well as Kihei Elementary and Kula Elementary.

Effective February 1, 2024, the USDA approved HIDOE’s request to include the six schools for the Community Eligibility Provision (CEP), which enables schools that predominantly serve low-income children to offer free, nutritious 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.