Small town school’s lunches from cafe next door scrapped for $3 meals from 800km away

Monday, 18 November 2024

Murchison Area School principal Andy Ashworth says students will have to make do with muesli bars if the lunches don’t arrive due to weather or road closures.

The principal of a small rural South Island school is urging the government to rethink “short-sighted, narrow-minded” changes to the school lunches programme which will see his 200 pupils’ lunches made in Hamilton - 800 kilometres away.

Murchison Area School currently receives lunches made by the café next door, through the Ka Ora, Ka Ako Healthy School Lunches programme.

The meals were fresh, varied and nutritious, principal Andy Ashworth said.

From next year, the school for years 1-13 would receive lunches made in Hamilton, for $3 a head, under measures announced last month by Associate Education Minister David Seymour.

Nationally, the changes would cut the programme’s costs by $130 million a year, with lunches previously costing up to $8.68 per student, Seymour said.

Ashworth hoped to be proved wrong, but predicted the changes would be “a disaster” and would see his school’s lunches replaced with meals students wouldn’t eat.

The $3 cost included transportation, he said.

“You can imagine the quality of the meal.”

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It appeared students would have to make do with muesli bars and non-perishable items when the lunches didn’t arrive, due to factors including road closures and weather events, Ashworth said.

The lunches, provided by a group of contracted businesses, would be made in a central kitchen in Hamilton and delivered to 29 kitchens throughout the country.

The hot and cold meals would be stored and heated (if applicable) in those kitchens, before being distributed to schools.

The government said the savings would help provide food for up to 10,000 two-to-five-year-olds at low-equity, community-based early learning services.

But Ashworth said the lunch cuts would make life harder for struggling families.

Many families at his school had chosen the school specifically for the lunch programme, which was targeted at low income areas, he said.

The free lunches offered families a “significant financial saving”, with parents often having two or three children at the school.

Ngāti Rārua provides lunches like this to schools in the Nelson region, but will have less money to do so from 2026, as the government reduces funding for the Ka Ora, Ka Ako Healthy School Lunches Programme by $130m a year.

“I would predict … the kids just won’t eat it [the new meals], so then they’re back to having to provide their own lunches.”

The new model was being rolled out to full primary schools (years 0-8) and composite/area schools (years 0-13) in the programme next year.

Contributing primary schools (years 0-6) would follow in 2026.

Schools would receive either the lunches from the “School Lunch Collective”, or meals prepared for $4 each under an ”internal and iwi/hapū model“.

Contributing primary school in Nelson, Auckland Point, belonged to the latter, with lunches supplied by local iwi, Ngāti Rārua.

In 2026, the iwi would have $1 less to prepare each meal, and it was unclear what effect that would have, principal Sonya Hockley said.

It was perplexing the government had targeted school lunches to make savings, when living costs were high, she said.

The school’s current lunches were tasty with fresh, healthy ingredients, which helped students broaden their palates and learn how food was made, Hockley said.

Attendance had increased at the school since the lunch programme started, along with a breakfast club the school ran, she said.

The cuts made it harder to achieve the programme aim of ensuring children had at least one nutritionally balanced meal a day, she said.

Principal of Victory School Dan George said the lunch programme wasn’t the only programme being cut back in schools.

The government was stopping the Māori language programme for teachers and students, Te Ahu o Te Reo Māori, next year.

It was also reviewing a homework academy the primary school ran for refugee students and an out-of-hours music programme, George said.

“A lot of these initiatives that they are reviewing or potentially cutting back are initiatives that really benefit students from minority groups.“

Asked to respond to the comments, Seymour said some businesses would lose contracts as part of the new school lunches model, but the priority had to be delivering lunches at a cost affordable to the taxpayer.

“We can’t justify keeping the old model when it’s possible to deliver at half the cost.”

Ministry of Education Hautū (leader) operations and integration, Sean Teddy, said the “School Lunch Collective” had committed to working with schools that might be susceptible to being cut off due to a weather event.

That might include maintaining a certain amount of non-perishable items at a school, Teddy said.

“The three businesses in the School Lunch Collective have extensive networks, experience, and expertise across the sector and know each other well.

“Between them they have a range of facilities across the country, including in remote communities, and a proven record of getting supplies into locations cut off by extreme events.”