§27-8 Contracts for food; percentage to be grown within the State. (a) The department of education, department of health, department of corrections and rehabilitation, department of defense, and university of Hawaii system shall each ensure that a certain percentage of the food purchased for public schools, youth campuses, public hospitals, public prisons, and any purchases made directly by the university of Hawaii for use in its academic programs, as applicable, is fresh local agricultural products and local value-added, processed, agricultural, or food products, as follows:
(b) The department of education, department of health, department of corrections and rehabilitation, department of defense, and University of Hawaii system shall each submit a report to the legislature no later than twenty days prior to the convening of each regular session on progress made toward meeting the benchmarks described in subsection (a), including:
(c) As used in this section:
"Fresh local agricultural products" means fruits, vegetables, nuts, coffee, eggs, poultry and poultry products, livestock and livestock products, milk and milk products, aquacultural and maricultural products, and horticultural products, that are one hundred per cent grown, raised, and harvested in Hawaii.
"Local value-added, processed, agricultural, or food products" means a product for which at least fifty-one per cent of its primary agricultural product is grown, raised, and harvested in Hawaii.
"Primary agricultural product" means the major agricultural product in a processed or value-added agricultural or food product. [L 2021, c 176, §2; am L 2022, c 144, §2 and c 278, §55; am L 2025, c 137, §2]