School lunch provider says new scheme won’t cut it
Reduced food quality for tamariki and job losses in Waikato will be the direct impact of revamping free school lunches scheme, according to one healthy lunch provider.
Nicole Rakena, founder and company director of Te Puna Kai Catering, says many front line staff and smaller local providers will lose jobs under a government plan to centralise the scheme but also extend it to preschoolers.
The Catering company provides lunches to four Waikato schools - Morrinsville Primary, Huntly Primary, Waipā Primary and Ngaruawahia High School.
“This job is the current sole support for my family as well as eight of my staff that will lose their jobs due to this announcement.
“There is so much infrastructure that has been put in place that is now being wasted as well as a bit of a slap in the face to all the workers who have put so much time, effort and energy to get the best possible outcomes for our students.”
Associate Education Minister David Seymour has promised $478 million to the free school lunches scheme, but says changes are coming.
A new model will save the taxpayer $107 million per year, $4m of those savings will be used to extend the scheme to 10,000 preschoolers, Seymour said. The government will do it by ordering in bulk.
Schools will order food from a central source to store, prepare and distribute to students.
Seymour said this provided more flexibility to the school and allows intermediate and secondary school students more choice, but “forget quinoa, couscous, and hummus, it will be more like sandwiches and fruit”.
However, Rakena said, this was a step backwards in regards to food wastage and would have an adverse affect on kids’ health. For many students, she said, school lunch was the only meal of the day and “a sandwich and muesli bar isn’t gonna cut it” in winter.
“I wonder what kind of budget ministers have for their lunches?
“The lower quality, not hot food in winter and all that will have an impact.”
Rakena said quality was key to reduce food waste and increase the uptake.
“If you actually look at data that they're starting to collect now, the schools that have 100% or more uptake are the ones that have smaller providers or an in-school model.
“Going to a more central model isn't the way to reduce waste because then the quality decreases and the uptake decreases as well.
“What's the point of putting money into it if it's actually not going to serve its purpose? Students won't want just a sandwich that's cold and made days before.”
Rakena’s background in teaching prior to catering made her see the need for food amongst school kids.
“I had so many kids that wouldn't have food, they wouldn't have a bag or they wouldn't have any lunch for the day and they're not going to go to the office and ask for a piece of fruit.
“There's a stigma around asking and being that kid that goes and gets the lunch rather than being offered to everyone.
“And things are worse now than I saw first hand when I was a teacher.”
For 2025 and 2026, year 0 to six students will keep getting school lunches as they are now, while students from year seven to 13 will be fed under an alternative model. The scheme in its entirety will be redesigned in the meantime, with input from an advisory group.
Seymour had been a vocal critic of the free school lunches programme that feeds about 235,000 students across 1000 primary and secondary schools - about 40% of all schools and 27% of all students.