Hundreds of school lunches sent out under the new system are being left uneaten. Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
Two big Auckland schools are slashing the number of free lunches they are receiving under the government's new system because students are not eating them.
But they have different views of whether the reduction is a good thing - one says students deserve better food, while the other says the lunches are for the students who need them most.
The schools' lunches were provided by the School Lunch Collective, which won the contract to provide free lunches to 466 schools with students in Year 7 and above this year.
Aorere College principal Leanne Webb said the switch to the collective started off "okay-ish", despite a few problems such as damaged food containers.
"But then that stopped, and for the last eight days in a row we've had food that has been produced by Pita Pit. Now it's not Pita Pit as you would recognise it at a Pita Pit shop. They've been subcontracted to produce this food, but it's awful. It's awful.
"We've had bread rolls with sloppy coleslaw inside, a tiny vegetarian patty, or one tiny piece of meat inside it, and and then the next day it's the same filling, but it's a different carbohydrate. So it might be a wrap the next day with that same stuff and then the next day it might be a pita pocket with the same stuff in it. How many days in a row can you eat this? Yesterday it was two bits of thick white bread with the same sloppy mixture inside.
"And we ring and we complain but nobody ever gets back to us.
"As a society, we need to ask ourselves, is it acceptable to be producing poor quality food? Many countries in the world provide lunches for their students, but in New Zealand there seems to be condemnation that some people don't have enough money to provide lunches. But it's routine in the UK and in Scandinavian countries for students to get school lunches. Our kids need them."
Webb said too much food was being wasted so the school reduced its order.
"They were giving us 1500 and there was huge waste. We cut it back to 1000 and then we still had waste and so we'd cut it back to 800," she said.
"Of those 800 we're getting, we have very little waste."
Otahuhu College principal Neil Watson said his school would reduce its order because only about half its students were eating the lunches.
He said that was fine because the lunches were reaching the students who needed them.
"From our perspective they're doing the job they were set out to do which is provide food for those students who need it," he said.
He said whether students liked the lunches was "almost irrelevant".
"It's like when we were at school with our school lunches. You had a marmite and cheese sandwiches and things like that and you ate them because you were hungry. Mightn't have been your first choice and I think that's what's happening with these school lunches."
Watson said the school received 900 lunches each day last year, but that was now down to 700 and the school would probably reduce that figure to 600.
The collective's website featured glowing comments - all from students at Awatapu College in Palmerston North.
School principal Gary Yeatman told RNZ the comments were from a trial last year, but generally students were eating the meals and he had no plan to reduce the number of lunches.
"We serve around 900 students here each day. We also have to work on the fact that at any one time there might be five percent away," he said.
"Any given day depending on what's being served the wastage can change a little bit. What we are currently doing if we do have food items left, we're giving them to a local charity for them to pass on so while it might be wastage at a school level, from a community level there's nothing going to waste."
Yeatman said the biggest problem was distributing the meals.
He said the meals previously arrived in a form where one box of meals was sufficient for one class, but now each box contained sufficient meals for one-and-a-half classes.
"We actually have to get them in, divide them up so that we've got the right number for each class and then get them off to class. So we've actually employed someone now part-time to help with that," he said.
"And I have a member of my senior management team who also assists with that so it can up thirty minutes to an hour of his time."
In a statement, Associate education minister David Seymour - who is behind the revamp - said the policy wasn't about "a gourmet taxpayer funded meal".
"It's a simple, nutritious lunch to ensure hungry kids are fed and that's what's being delivered," he said.
He said one of the benefits of the new model was that schools could manage meal numbers and dietary requirements themselves.
"The priority for the school lunches programme must be delivering lunches to students in need, at a cost affordable to the taxpayer. It's encouraging that schools are using the new portal to update details to reduce waste."
A filled roll is what most parents send their children to school with and there's nothing wrong with that. Some principals are doing students a disservice by teaching them they should never be grateful for anything and complain about everything."
This programme isn't about a gourmet taxpayer funded meal, it's a simple, nutritious lunch to ensure hungry kids are fed and that's what's being delivered. A filled roll is what most parents send their children to school with and there's nothing wrong with that. Some principals are doing students a disservice by teaching them they should never be grateful for anything and complain about everything."
The School Lunch Collective's website said it provided lunches to about 130,000 students each day, but the Education Ministry told RNZ it was providing about 125,200 lunches each day during the past week and a half.
The ministry said the number of lunches sent to schools was previously based on their attendance patterns, but this year schools were using an online portal to order two weeks ahead based on attendance and dietary requirements for students each day.
"This allows for the number and type of meals delivered to be adjusted based on planned activities, such as school trips, teacher only days, or when students attend regular classes offsite. Under all iterations of the school lunch programme, managing waste has been a key focus," it said.
"We would expect schools to adjust their information in the portal throughout the school year based on roll numbers, dietary requirements, and attendance. Schools do not need to provide a reason for adjusting their information in the portal. We are not aware of any schools cancelling their lunch order since the start of Term 1, 2025."
The School Lunch Collective told RNZ about 15 Auckland schools were receiving Pita Pit meals.
"The number of schools receiving the Pita Pit meals are being rotated every few weeks to ensure there is variation in the menu. The number of schools receiving Pita Pit varies depending on role sizes at the schools that receive the meals - however for example, you could say it's around 15 schools receive the 10,000 meals in Auckland," it said.
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