School lunch numbers down as students reject ‘bland’ meals

Tuesday, 29 July 2025

Hillmorton High School students in Christchurch have mixed views on school lunches.

A Christchurch high school has cut back its orders of school lunches to just 64% of its roll, but still often has uneaten meals left over as students “don’t like them”.

“A smaller percentage of kids are eating lunch because most don’t like it,” Hillmorton High School principal Ann Brokenshire said of the $3 school lunches supplied by the School Lunch Collective (SLC), which started this year.

The number of meals delivered to schools by SLC has dropped nearly 19% since the start of term 1, according to its website.

At the start of the year, SLC delivered 127,000 meals to students, which dropped to just under 112,000 on March 25, and fewer than 103,000 by July 21.

Hillmorton High School students line up at the school canteen for the Government-provided school lunches.

SLC said the average number of surplus meals across terms 1 and 2 was 8.8%. This compares to a programme average surplus of 6.4% in 2024, according to a memo from Ministry of Education staff released to The Press on July 3.

The falling number of school lunches being delivered comes as SLC confirmed it will use a mince blend mixed with offal in some beef meals in term 3.

SLC said the fall in uptake of lunches was about school attendance, not food quality.

“We’ve been working with schools to reduce the numbers they order … to reflect daily attendance, factoring in things like sickness and school trips,” a spokesperson said.

The number of meals delivered at the start of the year was based on the total roll of participating schools, he said.

Hillmorton received 1024 meals at the start of 2025 (73% of its roll), and has since reduced it to 896 (64% of the roll).

Deputy principal Kathryn Jordan-McGrath said the sole reason was to avoid waste, as many students did not like the meals.

Students at Hillmorton High School were given meatballs and vegeful pasta sauce when The Press visited last week, along with snacks of yoghurt pouches and pea chips.

“But we don’t want to cut it too much and risk not having enough for kids that do eat them.”

The school also said it had not been made aware of the use of offal and hoped it would not put more students off the meals.

The Press visited Hillmorton last week and saw some students take two meals, but many did not take any.

Two paid lunch co-ordinators oversee distribution that is heavily reliant on student volunteers, with younger pupils eating in their year group areas, the older ones lining up and collecting them.

Meatballs and vegeful pasta sauce were on the menu, along with snacks of yoghurt pouches and pea chips.

Hillmorton High School students Taylor Timu, left, and Gabrielle Inong serve lunches to fellow students.

Ruby Archer, in year 12, was with friends but did not eat a meal. She tried some at the start of the year but soon stopped eating them.

“I ate them last year when they had a bit more flavour to them. This year they’re a bit bland.”

Year 12 student KJ Caldwell was chomping down on a Cookie Time cookie. She had been to the dairy because it was her pay day.

On days she could not afford it, she did not eat the provided lunches. “I just don’t eat.”

Twins David and Peter Bataq had taken two of the meals “because there’s nothing else”, and said they liked the meatballs but not the pasta.

Theresa Ogunbanwo had taken a meal and snack but gave the meal to another student, Navead Barnet, as “they have no flavour”.

Barnet said he always ate the meals but preferred those from last year, which were “10 times better”.

By the end of the day, SLC collected 132 surplus meals, or 14.7%, along with lunch trays and food scraps.