Coordinated advocacy and rangatahi voices helped shift media coverage of Ka Ora, Ka Ako towards evidence-based benefits during political debates over the school lunch programme, new research shows.
The study found that while most news coverage following the 2023 election and around Budget 2024 highlighted the programme’s benefits, this was the result of sustained advocacy rather than evidence alone.
“Just producing good evidence is not enough. People must actively and strategically advocate for evidence, otherwise politics and distractions can take over the conversation,” says lead author Hinako Percival, a member of HCA’s Food Policy Expert Group, doctoral candidate and research assistant at Massey University.
The three authors are members of HCA’s Food Policy Expert Group who wanted to better understand media messaging during a period when the lunch programme was under threat.
The influence of news media on public opinion and then public opinion on government decision-making is well documented, they say. Read the paper.
They used a validated tool to analyse news media coverage in the year following the 2023 election, including Budget 2024, when Associate Education Minister David Seymour announced cuts to school lunch funding and a centralised provider.
While three-quarters of media articles framed school lunches as beneficial for children’s long-term wellbeing and a social responsibility, others focused on parental responsibility and wasting taxpayer money.
Rangatahi voices turn the tide
After the election, articles were very focused on the costs of the school lunch programme.
That changed when The Post published its ‘What’s for Lunch?’ series, which featured rangatahi voices, Hinako says.
“That marked a turning point where news coverage started to talk beyond the ‘he said, she said’ of what politicians said, and moved the focus to, ‘What are the impacts? Why does Ka Ora, Ka Ako exist in the first place?’
“I think evidence alone doesn’t always reach people, but hearing rangatahi voices and their lived experiences humanised the school lunch programme.”
Further, this blend of lived experience and evidence succeeds in the media because journalists are trained to use personal stories to make complex stories more engaging.
Coordinated advocacy has impact
At a critical moment, a simplistic narrative about ‘woke food like sushi and quinoa’ took up a lot of media space. The Prime Minister’s references to Marmite sandwiches also gained attention, tapping into ideas of parental responsibility and pejoratively alluding to the programme as “woke”.
However, coordinated advocacy led by HCA health experts, school principals and others concerned about children’s education and health shifted media focus back to evidence-backed claims.
Associate Professor Victoria Egli, a member of HCA’s Food Policy Expert Group and health equity and innovation researcher at the University of Waikato, and fellow author Professor Lisa Te Morenga, were involved in a petition and related events in early 2024.
“We were able to make the dominant narrative that healthy, delicious school lunches are beneficial for children,” Victoria says.
On 10 April 2024, six schools from the Wellington region, accompanied by HCA representatives, visited Parliament to hand over the HCA petition calling for the lunch programme to be protected and continued.
Around the time of the Budget, David Seymour changed his message to one about ‘saving school lunches’ while announcing significant funding cuts.
Social justice advocates responded to these contradictory messages with evidence and real stories.
During this period, there was an increase in school, ākonga, whānau and community voices being reported in the media.
Rangatahi groups spoke about the important difference school lunches made to their lives and why they needed them. One example was a student from Taita College, reported by RNZ on 10 April 2024:
“Students are a bit more active during class, they’re healthier. I know some students who didn’t come to school because they didn’t want to, and the food has really given them reason, and has actually made them study.”
Pairing evidence with lived experience creates empathy, the study authors say.
A rangatahi-led research organisation, Toi Matarua, published a youth-authored article in Hawke’s Bay Today in April 2024.
One student said: “I think it’s a good idea to actually put more effort into the free school lunches programme because lots of kids with big families like mine can struggle to send food with each kid. As rangatahi, we think we should be given a voice in what the Government plans to take away from our kura. We think we should stand up and protest and let our voices be heard.”
The authors hope the study encourages public health researchers to speak in the media to counter false narratives and provide a platform for scientific evidence.
“We need to come together in Aotearoa, particularly when it comes to Ka Ora, Ka Ako, and make sure our kids have the absolute best chance of a successful and bright future. Ka Ora, Ka Ako is clearly an important tool in our tool belt,” Victoria says.
