Nutrition and food safety concerns after new, cheaper free school lunch menu rolled out

Saturday, 26 October 2024

David Seymour tries a new school lunch prepared by a chef. Seymour praises the meal, giving it a solid 9.5/10 for its great flavours and textures.

A Northland principal has questioned the nutrition of the new, cheaper school lunch programme.

The Government has revealed the programme’s new menu, which costs $3 per meal and is projected to save $130 million annually.

The Green Party is also concerned at the plan, with the main provider of the lunches being subject to scandals in the past.

A Northland principal has questioned the level of nutrition in the new free school lunch programme that will be rolled out from next year at a cost of $3 per meal.

David Seymour gave a thumbs up to the Healthy School Lunches scheme he launched in Parliament on Tuesday.

On Tuesday, Associate Education Minister David Seymour announced the new school lunch menu, which he said would save the Government $130 million annually.

Despite shaving more than $5.50 off each lunch, Seymour described the meals, that include butter chicken and lasagne, as “so good”.

However, Hora Hora School principal, Pat Newman, said at $3 per meal, he doubted the new external providers of the food would prioritise health.

“I don’t think families from homes with more funds would be sitting down to $3 meals. Why should kids from lower income families be made to do that?“ Newman told Stuff.

Hora Hora School principal Pat Newman argued that kids from lower income families should not have to eat $3 meals, when wealthier families wouldn’t.

The current model of providing lunches on site meant children had “nutritious, healthy and nice food”, he said, whereas the Minister was only interested in “saving money”.

“I also question the figures at $3 a meal. How long before the firms go back to the Government and say the price of food has gone up, we need to increases this.”

The new centralised system meant more than 70 smaller companies would lose their contracts to provide school lunches.

However, at Tuesday’s announcement, Seymour said the Government was “leveraging private sector expertise” by contracting firms like Compass Group NZ and Gilmours.

“We are setting a precedent for the Government working with businesses to achieve better results,” he said.

Bishop Viard College principal Chris Theobald said his Porirua school would opt for the internal model, but it would come at a cost.

“When you tear up the script and get people in the room to do things differently, you can actually produce results that nobody thought was possible.”

Bishop Viard College said it would opt for the internal model of the new programme and receive government-negotiated wholesale ingredients to prepare meals on site.

But principal Chris Theobald said that meant receiving about half the money it currently did per meal, and using an extra $70,000 out of its operating grant.

“That funding that could have been spent elsewhere, like curriculum resources, but it’s been reprioritised to pay for staffing for the lunch programme,” Theobald said.

The options he had seen “via the media” for externally prepared meals looked “tasty on the surface”, but he wanted to continue to make food at the school.

An example of the new school meals students can expect.

“I think there is a lack of vegetables. Whereas our kitchen staff make sure the vegetables are in there, even if hidden, so kids can get what they need.”

Green Party education spokesperson, Lawrence Xu-Nan, described the new lunches as a “sorry sight”.

“They are a real cause for concern. The texture, the temperature and taste is all sub-par,” Xu-Nan said.

He was also alarmed that Compass Group NZ was the new lead of the programme, on a contract worth about $85m.

“The history of this particular company suggests that they will cut corners. It has a really chequered past when it comes to providing food,” he said.

In 2013, the firm’s parent company, Compass Group PLC, was found to have unknowingly sold burgers with horse DNA to schools in Ireland and Northern Ireland.

And in 2016, hundreds of protesters demonstrated against a decision by Dunedin Hospital to outsource its meals to Compass, describing the food as “slop”.

Stuff has approached Compass Group NZ for comment on its nutritional quality and food safety record.

Labour’s education spokesperson, Jan Tinetti, said the Government was “replacing healthy school lunches with low-cost snacks”.

Newman added that any politician currently working in the Beehive would be unlikely to eat a meal worth $3 that had any health benefits.

“Do you think Bellamys will be able to do $3 a meal and have the right amount of nutrition? And see, most of them are fairly old, they won't need a big meal like kids do.”