School lunches contractor supplied ‘mouldy’ ‘foul’ food, school says

Sunday, 27 October 2024

When four pupils from Taranaki’s Waverley Primary School were some of the first to try the Government’s new school lunch meals - championed as nutritious, filling and cheap - they gave them the green light.

In fact, they said this week from the Beehive, they preferred them over the lunches they receive now.

But later that day their school principal, Tim Marriott, told the Sunday Star-Times he “100%” wouldn’t have allowed them to try the meals if he had known who the supplier was.

That’s because, little did they know, it was the same supplier who had provided the school lunches in 2021, and which Marriott had repeatedly complained to the Ministry of Education about.

Do you know more? Email harriette.boucher@stuff.co.nz.

Compass Group, a multinational food service company, has been awarded the contract to lead the new healthy school lunches programme, Ka Ora Ka Ako, in schools next year. The meals include - launched and taste-tested at Parliament this week - butter chicken, meatball pasta, tex-mex mince beef and beans, beef rissoles with mash and gravy, and chickpea curry.

Compass is already a supplier of the current school lunch programme and previously had a contract with Waverley Primary School, organised through the ministry.

Marriott said the samples they originally tried in 2021 from Compass were “amazing”.

But it didn’t take long for the wheels to fall off.

“It was just foul,' said Marriott. “The boxes that we were getting with the food were mouldy. It was almost like they'd been kicked around.”

He claimed the meals had hair in them, and, once, a student complained of finding a band-aid in their meal.

Marriott said that while there was no evidence to back the student’s claims, he suspects the student was correct.

“We were getting sandwiches that had been sitting so long that they were soggy and falling apart. We had a butter chicken with a naan bread and you couldn't even pick the naan bread up, it was just falling apart in your fingers. It was so soggy.”

Some students were complaining about not having enough food, while others were receiving “heaps”, Marriott said.

The Ministry of Education began asking the school to weigh the meals, which they did, and differences of around 40g were noted.

Sean Teddy, the Ministry of Education’s leader of operations and integration, told the Star-Times that Compass Group had been performance managed “at various times since 2021”.

“As part of the [management plan] the assessment of meals produced by Compass identified inconsistent portioning of meals and nutrition content.”

Teddy said Compass was required to improve its food quality and size of the meals.

“Compass responded to the identified issues raised. They addressed these concerns and made improvements to their menu, and engagement with schools.”

At the beginning of Waverley Primary School’s contract, Marriott said Compass Group was easy to deal with but eventually stopped responding to emails and phone calls.

Eventually, Marriott was on the phone to the Ministry, sometimes three or four times a week. It became “super frustrating”.

“We would get some sort of change, and then it would go back to old habits.”

Associate Education Minister David Seymour said he had confidence in the school lunch suppliers.

“To sensationalise a very unfortunate incident [as] reflective or indicative of a provider that provides millions of meals is probably not really a fair attempt at describing them.

“We've also made sure that the contract is informed by the dealings they've had with other government departments, is very tight, and allows us to continue to hold them accountable for the quality delivered.”

Compass Group said it had been delivering lunches as part of Ka Ora Ka Ako for four years and had “longstanding relationships” with schools in the programme.

“We’ve learnt a lot in that time and have been able to adjust our approach to respond and deliver to the highest quality,” said managing director Paul Harvey.

“The meals we produce under this new partnership will meet the agreed nutritional guidance, are consistently and appropriately sized, and meet the expectations of schools and students. We are very passionate and proud to be part of the School Lunch Collective, helping the next generation to learn.”

Seymour has championed the $130m savings of the new programme, with each meal costing the Government $3. Students in years 0-8 will receive 240g meals and older students will receive at least 300g.

Currently, the lunches cost up to $8.68 each, and schools have a choice of supplier.

Marriott said he understands Seymour’s financial perspective, but didn’t think it was fair the schools didn’t get a choice in supplier, and worried whether corners would be cut.

“These lunches, the hot meals that we were getting, could have been [students’] only hot meal they were getting that day or that week.”

Sally Mackay, a senior lecturer in the University of Auckland’s faculty of Medical and Health Sciences, said she was dubious about whether nutritious meals will be able to be provided at such a low cost.

She was also concerned that nutritionists who were employed by the Government to monitor the food quality had been made redundant.

Although the Government had claimed it will be using the current nutritional standards, Mackay was unsure about how it will meet them, given the pre-packaged nature of the meals.

“I suspect they’ll be cutting corners with vegetables, and particularly fresh vegetables and a variety of vegetables,” she said, “often the more expensive component of the meals is the protein, and so it might be cutting down on that component to save money.”

Marriott thought parents would be concerned, as the lunches were making a difference to achievement and attendance levels.

“I'm nervous with going back to Compass, I really am nervous,” he said.

He thinks it’s possible, “It'll get to a point where our kids won’t eat it.”

Compass, which is also a food service supplier to several hospitals across the country, has reportedly been subject to several complaints, and a protest in the health sector too.

BusinessDesk previously reported that health authorities received 198 complaints about the food quality in 2021 and 2022.

In 2016, hundreds gathered outside Dunedin Hospital in protest, chanting“sack Compass”, and “stop the slops.”