Benefits outweigh the costs of school lunches at Morrinsville Primary
When the bell rings at 12.10pm each weekday, the kids of Morrinsville Primary School line up in the hall for lunch.
It’s cooked from scratch with fresh ingredients, free of charge and, according to the kids, delicious.
Butter chicken, mac and cheese, and nachos are the kind of kid-friendly but healthy meals being prepared. The children eat together, and plates are scraped (and licked) clean by 12.30.
But Ka Ora, Ka Ako school lunches might not be around for much longer.
Nicole Rakena, founder and company director of Te Puna Kai Catering, says she has seen things that David Seymour’s statistics could never tell him.
“I saw this as a teacher even before I came into [school lunches], that there are kids who don’t eat,” she said.
“I’ve had so many kids arrive at my class and they’ve just had chicken and chips in the morning. Or even just an energy drink. I had a kid whose family would roll a dice on who got to eat that night.
“And it’s really obvious in regards to their attention and their ability to comprehend or process. They don't take as much in.”
She notes that “hangriness” exists, and that kids with full bellies are much less agitated.
The lunches are also opening children up to new foods.
“I’ve had a parent tell me that her kid brought the food home and said, ‘Mum, can you make this?’. I even had one kid who had never had a cooked meal before.”
Although a recent Treasury report found that thousands of lunches were left over from the programme each day, Rakena said food waste wasn’t an issue. Kids get take-home boxes, and any scraps left on plates go in the pig bin.
After the meals, the children help to clean up, just like they would on a marae, Rakuna said. At some schools she caters for, Rakena has even had high school students doing work placements for Gateway.
“I give them a reference, and then they can get a job. One girl came back to me and thanked me so much for the opportunity, because she had a job now and loved it.”
The benefits were endless, Rakena said. But it was hard to see this when you were not seeing the mahi in person.
“You can look at statistics and pull the ones that support your narrative, but there is a bigger narrative that isn’t spoken enough,” she said. “Even if a school has 50% of kids who are fine and fed, what about that other 50%?”