HB 497 Hawaii House · 2025 Regular Session

RELATING TO THE HAWAII CHILD NUTRITION PROGRAMS.

Summary

Transfers the Hawaii Child Nutrition Programs Agency from the Department of Education to the Department of Agriculture and codifies its establishment. Establishes a grant program to be administered by the Agency to support the funding of certain initiatives for the State's public schools. Appropriates funds for grants. Effective 7/1/3000. (HD2)

Bill status in committee 1 of 4 stages cleared

Introduction

Jan 2025

Committee Review

Floor Vote

Governor

Introduced Jan 17, 2025 Last action Feb 11, 2025

Maddy AI version diff · 2 comparisons

What changed between versions

HB497_HD1 → HB497_HD2 · 7 edits

MODERATE

This bill moves the Hawaii Child Nutrition Programs agency from the Department of Education to the Department of Agriculture and establishes a new grant program to support local food purchasing in schools. The change aims to better align the agency with the Department of Agriculture to advance the state's '30 by 30' goal of serving 30% locally grown food in public schools by 2030.

Scope change

The agency's home department changed from Education to Agriculture, and the bill now includes new grant eligibility criteria and reporting requirements that were not present in the original version.

SCOPE

The Hawaii Child Nutrition Programs agency is transferred from the Department of Education to the Department of Agriculture.

REQUIREMENT

New grant preference criteria require applicants to demonstrate promotion of healthy food activities, clear educational objectives, community involvement, connection to farm-to-school procurement, and marketing of Hawaii-grown products.

New grant application requirements include indemnification of the state and agreement to make records available for monitoring compliance.

ENFORCEMENT

New requirement for the agency to submit annual reports to the legislature on fund disbursement within 20 days before each regular session.

FISCAL

Appropriation language added for fiscal years 2025-2026 and 2026-2027 to fund grants administered by the agency.

TIMELINE

Effective date set to July 1, 3000, which appears to be a placeholder or error in the draft text.

TECHNICAL

Transitions for civil service and exempt employees are preserved with protections for salary, seniority, and benefits.

Floor votes

How they voted

No floor votes recorded yet.

Full legislative history

Actions timeline

Total actions

Key actions

Committee

Feb 11, 2025

Committee

Report adopted; referred to the committee(s) on FIN as amended in HD 2 with none voting aye with reservations; none voting no (0) and Representative(s) Cochran, Ward excused (2).

lower

Feb 11, 2025

Committee

Reported from AGR (Stand. Com. Rep. No. 396) as amended in HD 2, recommending referral to FIN.

lower

Feb 7, 2025

Lower · Passed

The committee on AGR recommend that the measure be PASSED, WITH AMENDMENTS. The votes were as follows: 5 Ayes: Representative(s) Kahaloa, Kusch, Lowen, Perruso, Quinlan; Ayes with reservations: none; Noes: none; and 1 Excused: Representative(s) Ward.

lower

Feb 3, 2025

Committee

Reported from EDN (Stand. Com. Rep. No. 43) as amended in HD 1, recommending passage on Second Reading and referral to AGR.

lower

Jan 28, 2025

Lower · Passed

The committee on EDN recommend that the measure be PASSED, WITH AMENDMENTS. The votes were as follows: 11 Ayes: Representative(s) Woodson, La Chica, Amato, Evslin, Garrett, Kapela, Kila, Olds, Sayama, Muraoka, Souza; Ayes with reservations: none; Noes: none; and Excused: none.

lower

Jan 21, 2025

Committee

Referred to EDN, AGR, FIN, referral sheet 2

lower

Jan 21, 2025

Introduced

Introduced and Pass First Reading.

lower

Jan 17, 2025

Introduced

Pending introduction.

lower

20 primary · 0 co-sponsors