Shame on those questioning who eats a free school lunch
Wednesday, 19 May 2021
OPINION: New Zealand might be the land of milk and honey, but its people are starving.
In what has to be one of the pettiest bunfights ever fought in this country, it’s come to light that thousands of taxpayer-funded school lunches aren’t being eaten by the children they are destined for.
As if it matters, the Ministry of Education has admitted it does not have someone responsible for counting the number of rejected lunches: a position I imagine would be akin to making sure the kids at the Cancer Society’s Christmas party don’t score more than one balloon.
Two Hamilton principals say the number of leftovers varies according to things like student absences, the menu, and whether kids have brought food from home on the day. They both describe the programme as “fantastic”, though say it can always be improved over time.
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If these lunches were being biffed into the compost bins it would be one – very minor – thing, but the unused food goes to community groups that provide for other hungry New Zealanders.
Hamilton food rescue organisation Kaivolution estimates 1500 leftover school lunches are sent out daily to the city’s community centres, night shelters and Women’s Refuge.
One community centre manager says he gets between 100 and 500 lunches a day to distribute to people who need a bit of help, many of whom are families of school students.The food isn’t being wasted, he says, in case that wasn’t obvious.
A woman collecting some spare cheese and mayonnaise sandwiches from that centre to feed her family said her two boys were often too shy and ashamed to get the lunches from school. That’s a feeling far too many New Zealanders know.
Nearly 200,000 of our children are provided with a free lunch.
The Ka Ora, Ka Ako programme began in 2019 in primary schools with high levels of need, and was expanded to some high schools in 2020 and 2021 at a cost of $220.6 million over two years. Each primary school lunch stings us five bucks, while secondary school lunches cost $7.
Opposition MPs have of course barked their indignation. ACT party leader David Seymour says it’s “irresponsible” that uneaten lunch numbers aren’t recorded, while National’s Paul Goldsmith disagreed hungry community members should get a free meal out of 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.”
He’d spoken to a school which regularly has 200 to 300 uneaten meals and there was a feeling from the Government that every child should get a lunch, regardless.
Imagine that, a government believing every child should be getting a lunch. It’s political correctness gone quite mad.
Education Minister Chris Hipkins is quite rightly unconcerned about the leftovers and says about one in five children live in houses that struggle to put enough good-quality food on the table.
“We have targeted this programme to the 25 per cent of schools with students in most need.”
The only reason any of us should be concerned about who is eating state-funded free lunches is if they’re not being offered to the kids who need them.
To quibble about just which hungry person is brave enough to come forward for a bit of help is shameful.
Last week, as New Zealanders bickered over who eats a free sandwich here, the death toll in Gaza rose to 65 Palestinians, 16 of whom were children.
Our tasteless MPs need to get their priorities straight.