Photo: RNZ / Marika Khabazi
A high school that makes its own healthy lunches says they hardly have any leftovers at the end of the day.
Bay of Islands College makes the meals at school, with funding of $4 per student.
This comes as the government's new school lunch programme has been leaving a bad taste for some.
The government cut the Ka Ora Ka Ako scheme by $130 million last year. Meals were being made off-site by providers like Compass Group, and delivered to participating schools.
Bay of Islands College principal Edith Painting-Davis told First Up the school had spent a considerable amount upgrading its kitchen.
Associate Minister of Education David Seymour announced changes to the school lunches programme last year.
"So every time we were on a webinar with David Seymour, I would go, 'Can I just keep $3 per lunch?' and I just persisted," she said.
Painting-Davis said her request was eventually approved.
"When he got back to me and said, 'Well you can have your lunch soon, we'll give you $4 a day that way you can pay wages,' I was stoked."
She said the school community, including staff, stepped in to help manage the lunches.
Painting-Davis said even when the school received $8.29 per lunch they were only spending $4 to $5 per meal.
David Seymour. Photo: RNZ / Marika Khabazi
"In all honesty, I think anybody with the internal model would have realised that you didn't need to spend that much."
She told First Up one of the items on the menu was hamburgers with lettuce, tomato, cheese and dressing.
"The other section had watermelon and another section had a banana, and the other one was a hidden veggie brownie.
"We find it very hard to get a whole bucket full of scraps on any one day because they eat everything."
She said they knew how many lunches to serve by 10am everyday. By 11am, the students lined up at the canteen to grab their meals.
"I think the greatest thing is like it's called Ka Ora - which is to be big well, Ka Ako - which means you learn well, but you also there's a lot of learning around when they eat together for 10 minutes."
Painting-Davis said the students were expected to clean up after eating.
"When you finish, you scrape your tray. It's like being at the marae - you put your food scraps in one, burn your rubbish and the other put the cutlery in the bucket and then stack your tray. That's what they do every every day."
Painting-Davis said she was often asked if the school lunch scheme helped increase attendance and improved students' attention in the classroom.
"The first thing I noticed is that they stopped leaving school grounds to go downtown and buy lunch. I mean, we're in Kawakawa, we've got the Bay of Islands Bakery and it's always been a great place to go down to the butter chicken place, and they used to sneak out of school because they were hungry.
"But now what we notice is the only thing we have to stop [is children] trying to leave class early to get to lunch."
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