STAND. COM. REP. NO. 557

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    S.B. No. 1451

       S.D. 1

 

 

 

Honorable Shan S. Tsutsui

President of the Senate

Twenty-Sixth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2011

State of Hawaii

 

Sir:

 

     Your Committees on Economic Development and Technology and Agriculture, to which was referred S.B. No. 1451 entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO FARM TO SCHOOL MONTH,"

 

beg leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to designate October as Farm to School Month in Hawaii.

 

     Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Agriculture; Department of Education; Department of Business, Economic Development, and Tourism; Hawaii Association of Independent Schools; Hawaii Farm Bureau Federation; American Heart Association; Kokua Hawai‘i Foundation; The Kohala Center, and one individual.

 

     Your Committees find that initiatives such as Farm to School programs help to educate and reconnect Hawaii's children with agriculture, which is critically important in an increasingly urbanized society.  Through organizations such as the Hawai‘i School Garden Hui, with School Garden Networks on the Islands of Kauai, Oahu, Maui, and Hawaii; the Hawaii Association of Independent Schools' Grow Hawaii Farm to School Initiative; and the Healthy Hawaii Initiative, participants are working to promote the farm to school and school garden movement in the State.

 

     Your Committees are in strong support of Hawaii's Farm to School programs, and their hands-on approach to developing an understanding of and appreciation for agriculture by Hawaii's school children.

 

     Your Committees have amended this measure by:

 

     (1)  Correcting references to the Kokua Hawai‘i Foundation and its programs; and

 

     (2)  Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity and consistency.

 

     As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Economic Development and Technology and Agriculture that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 1451, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 1451, S.D. 1, and be placed on the calendar for Third Reading.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Economic Development and Technology and Agriculture,

 

____________________________ CLARENCE K. NISHIHARA, Chair

____________________________ CAROL FUKUNAGA, Chair