Education Ministry cuts Christchurch school’s lunch order to feed other hungry students

Wednesday, 8 July 2026

A Christchurch school will have its school lunch order cut by 80 meals next term, with the Ministry of Education saying the savings will help feed students at other eligible schools. But its principal says students are being penalised for poor-quality lunches rather than the supplier.

Ministry of Education lunch programme general manager Andrew Gibson told Haeata Community Campus principal Peggy Burrows on Friday the school’s daily School Lunch Collective (SLC) order would need to be reduced from 480 meals to 400 for term 3. The school has 584 students.

“We’re working closely with schools reporting high surplus to better connect meal uptake with the number of meals ordered each week,” he wrote.

A daily order of 400 meals was based on the school's meal uptake of 61% and an average attendance of 411 students in June.

The adjustment would allow funds to be reallocated “to other students in new eligible schools who need a lunch”, Gibson said.

He told Burrows the ministry would adjust the order if the school didn’t.

“If you decide not to adjust your daily meal order, we will unfortunately need to reduce the maximum lunch order (MLO) on your behalf from the beginning of term 3,” he wrote. “If you find uptake is increasing and need additional meals, please get in touch.”

Burrows told Gibson her students were entitled to the meals and the surplus reflected their poor quality.

“This is not an issue of students no longer requiring a lunch; rather, it is a consequence of the meals provided not consistently meeting student expectations or, in many cases, the standards envisaged by the Healthy School Lunches programme,” she emailed back.

Burrows told The Press daily attendance was highly variable and basing the reduction on one month of data created a risk of not having enough meals.

“What happens if in July suddenly everybody's back at school?”

The daily number of lunches supplied by SLC has reduced nationally from 127,000 at the start of last year, to an average of 77,835 in the last week of term 2 this year.

The Press reported last year that Hillmorton High School had reduced its order to 64% of its roll, but still often had surplus meals, with then principal Ann Brokenshire saying most students “don’t like them”.

SLC previously told The Press the fall in uptake of lunches was due to 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.

However, ordering lunches based on projected attendance rather than school rolls marks a departure from the programme’s original model, which relied on high volumes to make $3 lunches economically viable.

Burrows said students had consistently told her the meals were unpalatable and bland, but this did not mean there was not a need.

In response to Gibson, she asked the ministry to consider the school’s surplus data “within the context of the ongoing quality and acceptability issues experienced by our students”.

“Reducing our maximum lunch order before those issues are addressed creates the risk that, when improvements occur or student uptake increases, eligible students at our school may be unable to receive a lunch in a timely manner.”

She said the suggestion that reducing Haeata’s order would enable the programme to feed other hungry students was “nonsense”.

Schools in the top 25% of the equity index - with the greatest barriers to education - are eligible and “invited to join the programme”, according to the ministry’s website.

However, ministry national services and programmes group general manager Andrea Williams said there were “funding constraints” and 22 eligible schools were waiting to join the programme.

“Funding saved from making sure meal orders are in line with school’s requirements, is reinvested back into the programme either by inviting newly eligible schools or to support meal providers with inflation pressures and their ability to add more variety to a menu.”

Haeata Community Campus has submitted a business plan to provide lunches itself.

In his email, Gibson said the request was still being processed but warned it would need careful consideration.

“Changing one-part [of the programme] impacts across others and it’s a challenging balance to ensure we maintain a sustainable programme.”