Free school lunch provider goes into liquidation
Tuesday, 11 March 2025
Libelle Group has gone into liquidation.
Its operations within the Government’s school lunch programme will be taken on by another provider.
The Opposition said the latest development was “another day, another disaster” for the programme.
Libelle Group - one of the providers of the Government’s free school lunch programme - has gone into liquidation.
Robert Campbell and David Webb of Deloitte New Zealand have been appointed as liquidators.
Libelle Group is a member of the School Lunch Collective alongside Compass Group NZ and Gilmours.
Associate Education Minister David Seymour told Stuff that the provision of school lunches would not be affected.
“To ensure the uninterrupted delivery of the school meals provided by Libelle central production kitchens, the Compass Group has told the ministry that it will assume operations during this transition and take responsibility for providing meals every school day,” he said.
Seymour said he had confidence Compass would “find a solution so that children will continue to be fed, at a cost affordable to the taxpayer”.
The School Lunch Collective says it delivers meals to over 127,000 students across New Zealand each day.
How is the school lunch programme going at your school? Send your comments and photos to newstips@stuff.co.nz.
However, the programme has had significant problems, with a number of high-profile complaints including at Murchison School where pupils were served meals with melted plastic on them and at Ilminster Intermediate School, where a child was taken to hospital after suffering burns.
Paul Harvey from the School Lunch Collective said it was a difficult situation for Libelle and its team, but the collective’s priority “remains ensuring that 120,000 students continue to receive nutritious meals every school day through the Ka Ora, Ka Ako Healthy School Lunches programme”.
“Deloitte, as liquidator, has asked Compass Group New Zealand to help manage the transition and ensure stability while exploring options for Libelle’s future. To minimise disruption, Compass Group New Zealand has taken immediate steps to support Libelle, including ensuring staff wages are paid and keeping kitchen facilities running,” he said.
“We recognise the vital role that Libelle’s staff and partners play in delivering school lunches, and we are committed to ensuring the future of Libelle as part of the programme and supporting its people through this process.”
Labour: ‘Another day, another disaster’
Labour Education spokesperson Willow-Jean Prime said it was “another day, another disaster for David Seymour’s botched school lunches programme”.
“We said from the start that cutting funding for school lunches to pay for tax cuts was a bad idea.”
Prime said Seymour needed to explain how this contract was signed and what other problems he was aware off when he signed it.
Prime said Education Minister Erica Stanford and Seymour needed to meet and “sort this out”.
Labour leader Chris Hipkins echoed Prime’s comments during question time on Tuesday.
Hipkins asked what it would take for Prime Minister Christopher Luxon to step in and “fix the mess his government has made of the school lunches programme, particularly given the one minister who actually seems to want to get it sorted out, Erica Stanford, is being ignored by David Seymour,” referring to a series of missed meetings between the ministers.
Luxon replied that Seymour was working incredibly hard through some challenging issues.
“There’s some improvement happening,” he said. “There’s a lot more that needs to happen.”
The Libelle Group has been approached for comment.