Cooking the books: 200,000 of our kids to get school lunches by next year
Some 200,000 children will be fed by the state after a hefty cash injection into the school lunch programme.
The Budget tipped $252.6 million into keeping Kiwis fed, with $32m going to food banks and $220.6m for the lunch programme.
This should see about 200,000 children fed every day by terms 2 or 3 next year — up from 8000. The Government says this will create about 2000 jobs.
The scheme will target students in schools with the most disadvantage.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said a full stomach made all the difference to a child’s learning.
“Providing a free and healthy lunch at school is one way to help make New Zealand the best place in the world to be a child and to make that difference immediately.”
Education Minister Chris Hipkins said the scale of the expansion meant work would be scaled up during Term 3, including hiring local people and building systems and processes that reduce compliance costs on providers and improve data security.
He estimated about 2000 jobs in local communities would be created by expanding the programme.
Food waste, which the University of Otago estimates to be 4375 tonnes a year, is also a focus.
Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor said the Covid-19 crisis had disrupted supply chains which caused problems with access to food and risked food waste.
Food at the biggest risk of being wasted was fruit, vegetables and eggs.
O’Connor said $15m will fund an initiative to buy produce that would otherwise be wasted and deliver fresh produce boxes to those in need.
Spending will go towards scaling up Fruit in Schools to see about 100,000 boxes delivered to children over the next 10 weeks and to developing and trialling digital platforms to enable other novel solutions to connect food with consumers.
And about $32m will go towards responding to the increasing demand and pressures on foodbanks created by the Covid-19 crisis.
A new bulk food distribution system — dubbed the New Zealand Food Network — will be set up to support food banks and other community food providers.
Almost $80m will go towards social services to ensure they can continue to support people in recovering from the impact of the Covid19 crisis, said Social Development Minister Carmel Sepuloni.
Funding will go to all 131 budgeting services, which have seen an increase in demand, to help New Zealanders manage their finances.
Grants to the tune of $36m will be available for community groups, with a specific focus on enabling Ma¯ori, Pacific, refugee and migrant communities to access the fund.
In separate welfare spending, $20m is being directed to small rural and fishing communities to overcome problems of isolation and limited access to services.
The fund will increase access to support, advice and mental wellbeing services to vulnerable groups and will enable primary sector businesses to get financial and continuity planning, Rural Communities Minister Damien O’Connor said.
Providing a free and healthy lunch at school is one way to help make New Zealand the best place in the world to be a child.
Jacinda Ardern, Prime Minister