Auckland students launch petition calling for return of old lunch programme

Wednesday, 26 March 2025

Students at an Auckland school have started a petition asking the Government to reinstate the old school lunch programme.

The students, at Waitakere College, say the new programme sees meals arriving late, and at times “burnt” or “inedible”.

The principal says it is “a shame that such a successful locally led, locally delivered, locally maintained model was replaced by a centralised model which is struggling”.

A group of Auckland high school students, with support from school staff, have started a petition urging the Government to reinstate the previous school lunch programme.

Students at Waitakere College say the old school lunch programme delivered locally-made lunches that were “tasty and nutritious”, but the new programme has meals arriving late, or not at all, and often includes food that is “burnt” or “inedible”.

After the Government announced a cut in funding to the school lunch programme in 2024, Matilda Otter-Lowe told Stuff that students began discussing plans to initiate a petition if the new programme delivered poor quality food.

“We talked about starting a campaign if the lunches were bad,” she said. “Not surprisingly, they were bad. So then we were like, ‘We are going to start it and get more people on board’.”

Otter-Lowe said the new lunches were smaller and “not as tasty” as the old ones. “They’re just not as nice, and they’re soggy or overcooked. There is always something wrong with them.”

The students want a return to the old school lunch programme - or, if that is not possible, an increase in funding for the current programme.

Otter-Lowe said the old lunches were fresher and tastier.

“It was a little pasta and nachos, and you could taste that, people had actually put effort into it, people had worked to make them taste good, it wasn’t just focusing on the price, it was to actually make them nutritious.”

Fellow student Lola Porter said the old lunches were also more nutritious.

“The lunches last year and the year before had certain nutritional values that the people who made the food had to stick by. That has kind of slipped now and it’s not as nutritionally good.”

The pair were joined in launching the petition by Analiese Marygold, who said students at the school had been going hungry due to the quality of the food.

“I usually have a couple of bites and then have to throw it away because I can’t eat it,” she said.

“Hungry people get it and throw it out straight away, which is also not good for the environment. It is very wasteful.”

The students say they have received a lot of support from the school, with both staff and students getting behind the petition.

“I think a lot of people don’t like how it’s being run right now,” Otter-Lowe said.

She added that she has been surprised by the reaction the new lunch programme has caused in schools throughout the country.

“I didn’t realise people were so passionate about it in other schools,” she said.

As for the minister behind the programme David Seymour? The students have their own advice. “Eat the lunches.”

“He talks about how he wants us all to be more academic and get higher grades, but he can’t expect us to do that if we’re hungry and just need food. That’s not fair,” Otter-Lowe said.

The school principal, Mark P Shanahan, is supportive of the students’ petition.

“Waitakere College is very grateful that there is a Lunch in School programme with approximately 1200 of our 2000 students making daily use of it. So the need is real,” he said.

“All the concerns with it this year have already been well canvassed and our team are working with the suppliers on those issues.

“It is just a shame that such a successful locally led, locally delivered, locally maintained model was replaced by a centralised model which is struggling.”

In response to the petition, Seymour said it was just one group of students at one school.

“There are also many other schools who are very happy with and grateful for the school lunch programme,” he said.

“As much as some people try to remain fixated on the programme’s previous issues, we're focussed on the future and making sure the programme delivers.”

He added that the School Lunch Collective recorded 99.8% on-time delivery and that meal production rates had increased “considerably”.

Seymour also said Waitakere College was “the same school where Stuff previously reported teachers were issuing NCEA credits for campaigning against the programme, so I can see why the students are motivated”.

Last year, six students at the college campaigned against Seymour’s proposed cuts to the lunch programme, and earned five to ten NCEA credits for their extra work on the campaign as part of Social Studies.

A social studies teacher at the college, said the credits that were earned last year - there are none being earned for the petition this year - were “part of an NCEA Level 1 Achievement Standard called Social Action in which students choose a social issue they want to research and then take action to support or challenge a system relating to that”.

During the last few weeks, schools have been taking things into their own hands when it comes to the lunch programme, with one Huntly school pulling out of the scheme, and another Auckland school considering following suit.

Established in 2021 under the Labour government, the free school lunch programme was retained by the Coalition Government but at a reduced cost.

Seymour relaunched the programme, centralising the system to make $107m in savings and reduced the cost of the lunches from between $5.97 and $8.90 to $3.

Since the revamped programme launched in January, the programme has been beset with issues, from lunches not being delivered to the quality of food being sub-standard.

One student received burns to their leg after a hot lunch spilled on to them.

Stuff has reached out to the School Lunch Collective for comment on the student’s petition.

This story has been updated to include Seymour’s comments surrounding NCEA credits earned by students involved in last year’s campaign against the then proposed cuts to the lunch programme, as well as a response from a social studies teacher at the college. (Amended 8.45pm, March 26.)