Demanding a return to locally produced meals, the Principals Federation says schools have been patient long enough, writes Catherine McGregor in today’s extract from The Bulletin.
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Bring back old system, urge principals
The NZ Principals’ Federation (NZPF) has urged associate education minister David Seymour to scrap the new school lunch system, citing widespread food wastage and disruption to learning, Stuff’s Michael Daly reports. In a letter to Seymour, NZPF president Leanne Otene says the “global company” supplying lunches – lead contractor Compass Group – has failed to meet expectations, and calls for a return to locally produced lunches.
While Seymour has rejected their call, Compass may still be on the chopping block. The company’s contract with the Ministry of Education will be reviewed in term two, when it will be tested on “requirements to deliver ‘palatable’ and nutritious meals on time and in full, meet dietary requirements and minimise waste”, writes Newsroom’s Fox Meyer.
Complaints about mislabelled lunches, ‘awful’ meals
Right now, those requirements are a long way from being met. The new centralisd school lunch programme, introduced by Seymour in an attempt to save around $170m a year, has been plagued with issues since the start of the school year. Ham has been found in dishes labelled ‘halal friendly’, students have been handed “vegan” meals containing beef mince, and a complaint has been laid with MPI over special dietary meals – such as those for students with allergies – given to the wrong students. On Wednesday, Labour’s Carmel Sepuloni said Seymour should be sacked for his handling of the programme, RNZ’s Mahvash Ikram reports.
Beyond the mislabelling problem, there are widespread complaints about the quality of provided meals. Aorere College principal Leanne Webb tells RNZ’s John Gerritsen she’s been disgusted by the “awful” meals provided by subcontractor Pita Pit – but “not Pita Pit as you would recognise it at a Pita Pit shop”. Last month the Herald’s Jaime Lyth reported on complaints among Auckland parents’ of “yuck” and “unidentifiable” meals. One said that on a particular day, “all several hundred” meals were thrown out after none of the students at their child’s school could stomach the food.
Temper your expectations, Seymour advises
While acknowledging teething issues which he says are now being addressed, Seymour argues the complaints have been overblown. “I don’t expect the meals to be the best students have ever eaten. If most students think, ‘Hey these are pretty good’, I think that is a good result,” he said last month.
Otahuhu College’s Neil Watson is one principal who agrees. Whether students like the lunches is “almost irrelevant”, he tells RNZ’s Gerritsen. “It’s like when we were at school with our school lunches,” he says. “You had marmite and cheese sandwiches and things like that and you ate them because you were hungry.”
Local suppliers forced to close
A less obvious impact of the new school lunch system is its ripple effects on the wider community, writes Stuff’s Nadine Roberts. Accompanying Labour leader Chris Hipkins, she visited former workers at Nourish Ōraka, a Christchurch social enterprise set up to deliver meals under the original version of the government’s Healthy School Lunches programme, Ka Ora Ka Ako.
Nourish Ōraka’s closure was a loss to the whole community, said Hipkins, adding that Ka Ora Ka Ako was designed to do more than just supply meals. “It was also about creating jobs, connecting schools with communities,” he said. “I think we’ve lost a lot of that with the cut price lunches that the government’s now delivering.”
