95bFM How is the coalition government’s new school lunch programme going?
9 March, 2052
Interview by Castor Chacko, adapted by Vivek Panchal
Co-Chair of Health Coalition Aotearoa, Professor Lisa Te Morenga, criticises the coalition government’s new free school lunch programme and says Prime Minister Christopher Luxon’s recent comments about the new model are “really out of touch”.
The coalition government’s revitalised free school lunch programme is facing scrutiny over the implications the model is having on children and schools.
Since the updated programme has come into effect, some lunches have arrived significantly late; requiring schools to buy lunches for students, Muslim students receiving ham in their lunches; despite pork products being prohibited in Islam, plastic having been found melted in the food, and students describing lunches as “bland” and looking like “prison food”.
The new free school lunch model replaced the previous Ka Ora Ka Ako programme introduced under the Labour government in 2019.
ACT Party Leader, David Seymour, who has spearheaded the revamped initiative, introduced the new model, which aims to save taxpayers over $130 million a year by reducing the spend on each meal to $3.
Co-chair of Health Coalition Aotearoa, Professor Lisa Te Morenga, told 95bFM’s The Wire that adequately funded school lunches correlate with positive academic outcomes.
“We know from international research recently carried out that children who miss out on a meal two or more times a week are up to four years behind their peers in terms of academic success.”
Despite complementing Labour’s previous Ka Ora Ka Ako programme for their commitment to “ironing out” any problems their model was facing, Te Morenga expressed concerns over schools relying on external providers Compass and Litel, who are prominent companies in providing lunches to students in the current programme.
“[Compass and Litel] were the worst performing providers.”
“They were the problem makers and somehow managed to get the big contract delivering lunches to all kids.”
Despite initial roadblocks, Te Morenga says there was an overall change to how kids got lunch under the previous design; in some schools, local community contractors created and provided menus that kids could enjoy, while some schools managed to feed their kids by cooking meals themselves.
"Everyone came together, ate their lunches together, had conversations, and built relationships with the teachers.”
“They could be integrating the programme into their educational programmes, helping use [the programme] as an opportunity to teach kids about healthy eating and nutrition."
As well as expressing concerns over the expenditure of the previous school lunch programme, which cost $325 million annually, Seymour also conveyed concerns about significant food wastage, which Te Morenga says is untrue.
“[The food wastage] was tiny; about 6% or 7% of food was being wasted under the old programme, as schools or providers got better at making sure they were providing food that kids liked.”
“They weren't wasteful meals. But now it's all waste. Anything that's not eaten can't be reused because it's been chilled and then reheated, and you can't chill it again and give it out," she added.
Under the current system, the lunch portions are smaller than the previous design, which Te Morenga says is not providing enough sustenance to students.
“Some of the meals are really small; about 240 grams, so the government has had to top up the funding for high school students because it just wasn't meeting the requirements of moderately active older teenage boys in particular.”
“It is only providing 10% of their daily energy requirements, whereas in the past, they were trying to provide about 30% of their energy requirements; you know, a third.”
She criticised Prime Minister Christopher Luxon’s recent remarks on Newstalk ZB about the lunch programme, calling these comments “really out of touch,” especially when she says one in five New Zealand children do not have access to food every day.
“While a Marmite sandwich and an apple might have been fine for me or Christopher Luxon when we were kids, that was because we were going home to a healthy hot meal at the end of the day with some good quality protein.”
