Thousands of taxpayer-funded school lunches left uneaten by students

Tuesday, 11 May 2021

Fairfield College principal Richard Crawford says the school lunches in the Government's Ka Ora, Ka Ako programme have been a 'game-changer' in reducing barriers for some kids who were going hungry.

Thousands of taxpayer-funded school lunches are being left uneaten by students each week.

And the Government is not counting the leftovers from one of its flagship policies.

In Hamilton, Kaivolution, a food rescue organisation, estimates there can be up to 1500 lunches left over from city schools each day from the Ka Ora, Ka Ako programme.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Hamilton West MP Gaurav Sharma on a visit with Dallas Fisher from Bite L.A.B, which provides 9000 school lunches in Waikato, and 9000 in south Auckland, each day.

But, according to the Ministry of Education, no-one is responsible for counting the number of rejected lunches.

Left over Ka Ora, Ka Ako cheese and mayonnaise sandwiches at the Western Community Centre in Nawton, Hamilton. The community centre told Stuff it can receive between 100-500 lunches per day.

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Stuff has lodged an Official Information Act request seeking numbers about the scale of uneaten school lunches across the country, but opposition MPs have already waded into the bunfight.

Education Minister Chris Hipkins is quite rightly unconcerned about number of leftover lunches, writes Virginia Fallon.

Act Party leader David Seymour has called the lack of rigour “irresponsible” while National’s Paul Goldsmith says the programme is “poorly targeted”.

But Education Minister Chris Hipkins has pushed back, maintaining the programme is necessary, and not “wasteful”.

The Ka Ora, Ka Ako programme was first rolled out to primary schools with high levels of need in 2019. The funding was expanded to some high schools in 2020 and 2021, at a cost of $220.6 million over two years.

It costs $5 for a primary school lunch and $7 for a secondary school lunch, and 199,501 students in New Zealand get them.

Stuff has spoken to two Hamilton principals who say the number of leftover lunches ranges each day, for reasons including the menu, student absences, and whether students bring their own lunch.

Fairfield College principal Richard Crawford and Fairfield Intermediate principal Angela Walters both said the school lunch programme was “fantastic”, though there are ways the programme can be improved in time.

Hamilton schools have been receiving the lunches since February 2021.

Both Crawford and Walters send surplus lunches to community centres, where any member of the public can pick them up that afternoon.

National education spokesman Goldsmith told Stuff the waste from the programme was “considerable”.

National justice spokesperson Paul Goldsmith says people are feeling less safe.

“It’s the very definition of one-size-fits-all.”

He had spoken to a school which regularly has 200 to 300 leftover lunches, but there was a feeling from the Government that every child should get a lunch, regardless.

“You need to focus your help on those who really need it. Just saying that an entire school gets it whether they want it or not or need it or not, is not very well targeted.”

He disagreed that others in the community should get a free meal off the back of the uneaten lunches.

“If there is broader need in the community, that needs to be directly targeted, not through a wasteful food in schools programme that’s not meeting its need.”

Minister for Covid-19 Response Chris Hipkins.

ACT’s Seymour said it was “irresponsible” the Ministry of Education did not record the number of uneaten lunches.

He questioned whether the Government had overestimated the need, or whether the quality of the food was low.

Beef and cheese sandwiches, carrots and a muffin were on the menu at Hamilton’s Fairfield College on Tuesday.

“If you’re responsible for sending out taxpayer money, then you’ve got a duty to measure its effectiveness, not just for the taxpayer, but for the kids.

“If you really care about them, and they’re sending back 500 uneaten lunches, you want to know why.”

Education Minister Chris Hipkins told Stuff he was not concerned by the leftover lunches.

Schools either gave spare lunches to kids to take home or sent them to local foodbanks, so the programme wasn’t wasteful.

Hipkins said it would be “nanny-statish” for all schools or providers to monitor the number of uneaten lunches.

“If David Seymour wants to be the lunch monitor in every primary and secondary school he's welcome to do that.”

There was always some oversupply in catering for fresh food, but schools were going to “great lengths” to ensure it wasn’t being wasted.

“We know that around one in five children in New Zealand live in households that struggle to put enough good-quality food on the table, and so we have targeted this programme to the 25 per cent of schools with students in most need.”

Montana Catering director Dallas Fisher, who supplies the Waikato and south Auckland lunches through Bite L.A.B, said the company is constantly re-evaluating the menu.

According to Fisher, only about 95 unopened lunches came directly back to Bite L.A.B from schools each day.

“We are constantly looking at feedback.

“We have always understood the challenge of changing the palates of 5- to 17-year-olds.”

– Additional reporting by Thomas Manch