Famine to feast - teething issues continue with school lunch programme

Friday, 31 January 2025

As students returned to classrooms this week, the revamped school lunch programme kicked in.

But there have been teething problems, with lunches arriving late, and in some cases not at all.

Early Friday, some Auckland schools were informed a problem with ovens could mean late lunches again.

An Auckland school ordered 500 wraps on Friday morning when it found out there were problems with ovens used for heating school lunches and students’ meals were expected to arrive late.

But then the lunches arrived, and the wraps too, as teething problems continued for the government’s revamped school lunch programme, Ka Ora Ka Ako.

The abundance of food at Auckland Girls’ Grammar School on Friday came after some students received no meals at all on Wednesday, and the meals that did come arrived two hours late on both Wednesday and Thursday, principal Ngaire Ashmore said.

“It is so hard to know and trust the timing of deliveries at the moment and we don’t want our students to go hungry.”

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When Year 9 students started school on Wednesday, no special meals arrived for those needing halal, vegan, or meals fitting other dietary requirements, Ashmore said.

“They had an apple.”

The special meals did arrive on Thursday, but were inedible, she said.

Then, when the school was informed early Friday of an oven problem that would likely delay deliveries further, it went to its previous provider, Pita Pit, and ordered 500 wraps to arrive at 12.40pm, Ashmore said.

Late morning, when students had already finished their first break, the government meals arrived, so both options were available to students at lunchtime.

“It hasn’t been the best start,” Ashmore said, adding that communication from the supplier, Compass, and the Ministry of Education, had been good.

Ashmore said the late meals had been particularly disruptive as the school had been successfully providing meals late morning, timing that had worked successfully for two years.

“We feed our students at our first break at 10.50am because it’s a half an hour break, it fuels them up, and anything that’s left over they can pick up at the second break.”

The school lunch programme had been positive for the school, she said.

“Certainly at Auckland Girls’ Grammar School our results have continued to improve, the girls are fed, focused, and they have confidence that there is going to be something for them to eat that they like.”

The school had previously changed providers, and worked closely with that new provider around what works, particularly for girls, as they don’t necessarily like the same food as boys, she said.

“That’s what worries me is that I’m not sure whether students have had input into this menu.”

Overall, the new food was “not bad, just different” with this week’s meals being hot, whereas previously the school’s meals were wraps and salads in the summer, she said.

Ashmore said girls tend to like lighter, fresher food, “things they think are healthy”.

“It’s been a couple of years and we got it right the last six months of last year. To have it change was quite traumatic. We will keep monitoring and check that it doesn’t have a negative impact.”

Managing director of Compass, Paul Harvey, told Stuff that around 5am Friday, there was a problem lighting gas ovens at the company’s Ellerslie kitchen where 30,000 meals were set to be heated and then delivered to schools.

“We were here on site from 5.30am and into our contingency planning. When you’re dealing with what we’re dealing with, minutes matter.”

Compass will reimburse schools that had to purchase food to ensure students were fed on time on Friday, Harvey said.

Regarding missing special meals, Harvey said: “We’re getting more accurate data now coming through to ensure those own goals don’t happen.”

He said it had not been the week he wanted, but additional plans and expertise were in place to ensure 'the kids get the meals they deserve“.

“I’m convinced the model can work, we take full responsibility for the problems this week, but we know what needs to be done.”

Ministry of Education hautū (leader) of operations and integration, Sean Teddy, said the Ministry expects all providers, including Compass Group NZ, as the lead for the School Lunch Collective, to meet stringent performance targets and contractual requirements.

The Ministry will work closely with the School Lunch Collective to resolve any outstanding issues as quickly as possible before the full roll out next week when over 127,000 meals will be delivered each school day, Teddy said.

“Any additional food items purchased by schools to feed students, while waiting for meals to arrive, will be reimbursed by the Ministry. Once the costs are collated the Ministry will claim the total amount from the School Lunch Collective.”

Teddy said the School Lunch Collective has doubled its contact centre team to make sure they respond to all queries in a timely manner and added trucks to its fleet to reduce the number of schools a driver needs to reach each school day.