Free lunches seen as essential, despite uncertain future

Some schools say it has become a lifeline for them, but the government-funded school lunch programme has backing only until the end of next year.

Treasury documents show there is a lack of support for the continuation of the Ka Ora, Ka Ako programme, which launched about four years ago. 

A report for Finance Minister Grant Robertson said the programme had had no impact on attendance, and for Māori learners, had not led to better levels of concentration in class.

Checkpoint asked a lunch provider and some Waikato schools how the scheme stacked up in their eyes.

Libelle is one of many suppliers tasked with feeding more than 230,000 students across 995 schools In its industrial-scale kitchen in Pukete, Hamilton, staff prep 25,000 meals a day for schoolchildren.

Libelle Group founder Johannes Tietze said one of the meals - chicken, gravy and mashed potato - was like KFC but without any of the bad stuff.

"Nutrition forms the basis and the foundation of what we do," Tietze said.

"It's not just about providing the kai; it's about providing the right nutritional payload for each of the kids in the school while they're learning."

The company had put its experience in tuck shops to use for the school lunches scheme, and it helped that children did not hold back in their feedback, Tietze said.

"They're customers who will very clearly and very loudly tell you what they want - and what they don't want, more particularly.

"We learn along the way that certain foods are not popular and don't work, and then very quickly react to that and tweak the menu."

At Bankwood School, some parents told Checkpoint the food from provider BiteLab had been a gamechanger.

"We love them; our son really loves them," one mum said.

"He started school and had a lot of struggles with anxiety, and so for a long time wouldn't eat them, because he didn't know what they were going to be.

"But since then, he's actually thrived and loves them, and it's just great for the kids to know that they have something solid in their tummy every day."

Another parent said every bit of help went a long way in a cost-of-living crisis.

"A lot of families are struggling financially with the cost of food increasing. It does help us, especially with the fruit provided and vegetables in the lunches."

A parent who recently moved over from Australia said it would help students focus on school instead of worrying about lunchtime.

"When I was young, most of us had to think, 'How are we going to be eating? What are we going to be eating? Who's going to be looking at us if we're not eating anything?'

"The kids nowadays, they don't have to think about that, they don't have to worry about that, they just have to come to school to learn and be with their friends and not worry where the next meal's coming from."

Nico and Taki looked forward to their meals.

"The cottage pie is my favourite," Nico said. "I like the mince and the mashed potatoes."

Taki said the meals all had different things he liked. "We have wraps, and then we have these buns with a kind of sauce.

"I think the macaroni I prefer, and what he said - the cottage pie. They're all my favourite; I can't choose one."

Nico said the lunches took the pressure off his big family.

"We've got a two-year-old, a 13-year-old, and then me, being 11, and my little sister being six.

"It saves a lot of money because then mum doesn't have to spend money on us for lunch; she only has to buy lunch for Saturdays and Sundays."

Taki said decent food helped his classmates to concentrate. "When they're hungry and doing maths they go, 'Oh, I'm so hungry. They can't think about, like, 'What is two times five?'. They won't know because they're too hungry to think."

Bankwood School assistant principal Anaru Popham said for some kids, lunch was the difference between coming to school or not.

"I've worked with kids up north, who knew, 'Okay, this certain day is pay day, so we're going to get some food, but then once the food is gone, there are going to be quite a few days until the next time'.

"Now they know that every day they can come to school, so the attendance levels have shot up - and they continue to climb as we come out of Covid."

A half-hour drive north, Huntly West Primary gets its students' meals delivered from Libelle.

Principal Margs Aiono said since free lunches came in, she had seen an improvement in the children's attention spans.

Aiono said she did not want to see the end of the scheme, but if it was removed, the government needed to offer up something equally valuable.

"Healthy lunches in schools are definitely one of those things that support us.

"But if they take the funding away for this, then I'd like to think that we're going to deposit that funding somewhere else that we desperately need.

"Special needs, teaching resources - every school has a different need."