Hawaiʻi Pacific Health and Kamehameha Schools Renew Impactful Partnership for Students, Families, and Communities

Hawaiʻi Pacific Health (HPH) and Kamehameha Schools (KS) have renewed their partnership, reaffirming their joint commitment to improve education, health, economic stability, and social well-being of students and people across Hawaiʻi.

Leaders from both organizations gathered at the Kamehameha Schools’ Kapālama campus to celebrate the renewal and formally sign a new memorandum of understanding. KS CEO Jack Wong and HPH President & CEO Ray Vara signed the memorandum just as they did when the original agreement was inked in 2019, laying the foundation of collaborative work benefiting students, families and communities statewide.

“Over the past six years, our partnership with Hawaiʻi Pacific Health has shown how powerful it is when health and education are aligned around community,” Wong said. “Together we’ve opened doors for haumāna to explore health careers, invested in local food entrepreneurs, and grown our local food systems. This new memorandum builds on that momentum by reaffirming our focus on the overall health, resilience, and well-being of Native Hawaiians.”

“We are deeply grateful to Kamehameha Schools for this partnership and are proud of the impact we’ve made together to improve social determinants of health for Hawaiʻi families,” Vara said. “Through innovative programs, we’ve advanced workforce development initiatives, supported local food systems, and made transformational investments. This new agreement reaffirms our shared commitment to leverage our collective strengths in healthcare and education to create healthier communities across Hawaiʻi.”

The renewed memorandum adds a shared initiative of enhancing Hawaiian community health and well-being. As part of this effort, HPH and KS will share data and explore opportunities to partner on research related to Native Hawaiian health disparities to help better serve their needs.

Impact of the Partnership

In the past six years, together, both organizations have made a significant impact in the four areas of focus initiated in their original agreement. Projects launched during that time include:

1. Expanding career pathways and internship opportunities for haumāna (students)

• Provided valuable experiences for more than 100 KS haumāna through research opportunities and healthcare career training programs.

2. Investing in programs that make a social impact and empower Hawaiʻi people and families

• Supported local food entrepreneurs across the state through a joint investment of about $1 million in Feed The Hunger Fund in Hawaiʻi.

3. Building healthy food systems

• Both organizations achieved their purchasing goal of sourcing at least 50% of food locally for dining services and exceeded that goal in 2025.

4. Coordinating activities for community engagement

• Coordinated community workdays for nearly 400 HPH employees and their families who volunteered at KS partner sites, such as loʻi on Oʻahu and Kauaʻi.