{"id":217066,"date":"2025-06-03T12:54:59","date_gmt":"2025-06-03T22:54:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=217066"},"modified":"2025-06-03T12:59:28","modified_gmt":"2025-06-03T22:59:28","slug":"hawaii-food-policy-hackathon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2025\/06\/03\/hawaii-food-policy-hackathon\/","title":{"rendered":"CTAHR<\/abbr> students cook up winning proposal at Hawai\u02bbi Food Policy Hackathon"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading time: <\/span> 2<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>
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From left, Maiah Iseminger and Daley Trost took home top honors.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Maiah Iseminger and Daley Trost, undergraduates at the University of Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> at M\u0101noa College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resilience<\/a> (CTAHR<\/abbr>), earned first place in the state\u2019s first-ever Food Policy Hackathon.<\/p>\n

A multitude of UH<\/abbr> M\u0101noa students from CTAHR<\/abbr> were among teams that gathered from across the state to address food insecurity, one of Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span>\u2019s most pressing problems in a time of increased food costs. Iseminger and Trost proposed a pilot program to help public school families make sure they have enough food during a natural disaster by retrofitting kitchens and creating a food storage area.Their pilot would include one school in a hurricane evacuation area from every state Department of Education complex.<\/p>\n

“It was rewarding to use creativity to try and solve a real world problem,” said Iseminger, a senior in CTAHR<\/abbr>\u2019s Institute for Sustainability and Resilience program<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Innovative and impactful solutions<\/h2>\n

The two-day hackathon brought together bright minds to tackle key issues identified during the 2025 Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> Food Summit. Participants were challenged to collaborate, research and design innovative policy solutions, leading up to concise and impactful five-minute presentations.<\/p>\n

“Seeing so many minds work toward a shared goal was uplifting,” said Trost, a sophmore in natural resources and environmental management<\/a>. “And when you are in the same physical space as others, it creates respect for them and their opinions.”<\/p>\n

Both students are now developing a policy proposal to address food import dependence and insecurity in Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> for their environmental policy course.<\/p>\n

The Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> Food Policy Hackathon was co-sponsored by the Stupski Foundation and Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> Food+ Policy which is an internship program that empowers college students and young farmers to become advocates for a more sustainable and resilient food system in Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span>.<\/p>\n

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CTAHR<\/abbr> students learned how thoughtful policies and regulations can uplift Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> families.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

CTAHR<\/abbr> students were among teams that gathered from across the state to address food insecurity. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[212,951,544,73,9],"class_list":["post-217066","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academic-news","tag-college-of-tropical-agriculture-and-human-resilience","tag-food","tag-natural-resources-and-environmental-management","tag-sustainability","tag-uh-manoa","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t