Today we sent this letter to Prime Minister Chris Luxon, Hon David Seymour (Associate Minister of Education) and Hon Erica Stanford (Minister of Education).
Tēnā kōe Prime Minister (cc Hon David Seymour and Hon Erica Stanford),
We are concerned about your recent comment that parents of disadvantaged schoolchildren should send their child to school with a marmite sandwich and an apple, instead of relying on the Ka Ora Ka Ako school lunch programme.
There are several reasons why this seemingly simple solution is not realistic. An important reason is many disadvantaged whānau can’t even afford to give their kids a simple marmite sandwich and apple. As you know, Prime Minister, 1 in 4 children in Aotearoa New Zealand live in homes where food runs out sometimes or often. A marmite sandwich and apple are out of reach for a quarter of Kiwi kids.
Another reason is that growing teenagers need more nutrition than bread and fruit to support their growth, learning and development—especially as they are to become our future workforce.
Also, for many of our kids, these meals are their main or only meal of the day. This makes it even more crucial the school lunches give them the building blocks to become productive and healthy adults.
Hungry, disadvantaged kids in Aotearoa
You said you’d rather the Government didn’t have to provide school lunches to children. We would rather that too.
However, poverty rates in Aotearoa have increased over recent years. Around one quarter of parents are struggling financially to feed their children. Every child deserves to thrive free of poverty.
Some sobering statistics. The November 2023 NZ Health Survey found over 1 in 4 children (27%) live in households where food runs out often or sometimes. A United Nations report shows New Zealand has much higher rates of food insecurity than comparable countries — and those rates are growing. The Ministry of Social Development (MSD) said in December it was turning down 220 pleas for food grants every day. Latest New Zealand Food Network data shows food hubs are only able to meet 60% of their communities’ needs, as economic challenges and underfunding take their toll.
Most parents are trying their best — using all their energy and problem-solving skills to feed their children. We can’t imagine any of these parents are happy to send their children to school without lunch. We can’t imagine they don’t care or they aren’t trying to feed their kids. The Ka Ora, Ka Ako Healthy School Lunches Programme is designed to help these families.
Our future workers
Economic progress means delivering a good life for everyone. As a Government serious about improving productivity, economic growth and educational outcomes, we call on you to deal with hunger at school. Ensuring students can access nutritious, appealing school lunches is a simple, effective way to improve student learning outcomes and productivity.
Hungry, undernourished children cannot learn effectively or be productive. They are supposed to be getting a good education, so they can be strong members of New Zealand’s future workforce.
There is good data showing hungry students don’t do well in key subjects. Hungry kids are two to four years behind in subjects like maths and reading by age 15—even after adjusting for socio-economic indicators.
National (NCEA) and international student achievement scores (PISA) are currently dropping in Aotearoa—and research shows particularly so for disadvantaged students. These children are part of our future workforce, we need to invest in them.
Government subsidised school lunches in Aotearoa for disadvantaged kids
We question if the revised programme will actually save Aotearoa money – and at what long-term cost to children’s wellbeing and the productivity of New Zealand’s future workforce. The per school lunch cost may be currently cheaper than before, but this excludes the large number of new, addedcosts such as teacher time helping administer the lunches, additional subcontracting costs, and the costs of schools having to provide lunches to children needing halal or allergen free meals when the school lunch programme could not.
The original Ka Ora Ka Ako model was working. The scheme supported local employment, provided tasty, appetising and nutritious meals, minimal waste and was generally very well received across the country. A Value for Investment analysis showed the original lunch provision model was performing very well across 21 sets of economic indicators.
We support the mounting calls from principals, schools and parents to go back to the previous model of community and school based provision.
We call for the 2025 Budget to reverse the cuts to the Ka Ora Ka Ako programme.
In the interim, we call on the Government to hold the school lunch provider to account (Compass Group NZ Ltd). We need immediate action to ensure children receive healthy nutritious and delicious lunches that Compass promised to deliver. Disadvantaged children cannot wait a further two months until Term 2. Every day further undermines the food in school programme.
Many other countries do lunches in schools, and they do them well.
We are available to talk to you and officials about why we must have this school lunch programme working again and receive reinstated funding—and how to get it working long term in Vote Education funding.
Professor Lisa Te Morenga and Professor Boyd Swinburn (Health Coalition Aotearoa Board co-chairs)
Sarita Divis (Executive Officer, Child Poverty Action Group)
Ripeka Lessels (Te Manukura|President NZEI)
