Ministry does u-turn on counting uneaten school lunches

Sunday, 6 June 2021

Free school lunches in Hamilton. Schools part of the Ka Ora, Ka Ako programme will now be required to provide an average daily number of surplus lunches to the Ministry of Education.

Officials have u-turned on a multi-million dollar school lunch policy, and will now start regularly counting the numbers of tax-payer funded leftovers.

Recently, Stuff revealed thousands of lunches in the Ka Ora, Ka Ako programme were going uneaten at schools each week, and the Government wasn't counting the numbers.

In Hamilton alone, hundreds of the lunch packs were sent untouched to food shelters for the community to pick up every day.

Opposition MPs called the lack of rigour in the programme “irresponsible”, but Education Minister Chris Hipkins said it would be “nanny-statish” to make schools monitor the uneaten lunches.

Hamilton community centre manager Neil Tolan is grateful for leftover lunches from the Government's Ka Ora, Ka Ako school lunch programme, as is Kaivolution which helps distribute the lunches to night shelters and women's refuges.

But in an about-turn, schools will now be counting the average daily number of surplus lunches, and reporting that to the Ministry of Education.

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In an Official Information Act response to Stuff on May 28, deputy secretary of sector enablement and support Katrina Casey said there was “no requirement” to count uneaten lunches on a daily or weekly basis due to the “administrative burden” on schools, and the expectation leftover lunches will diminish as the programme continues.

School lunches left over are sent to local community centres in Hamilton where members of the community can pick them up.

But just four days later, schools were starting to provide regular, detailed information on the lunches, including an average number of surplus lunches per day, Casey said in a written response to questions.

Schools have been reporting to the Ministry about leftover lunches, and where they go, at the end of term.

“We have added additional questions to our check-in including on nutrition, surplus lunches, uptake, supplier relationships and impact in the classroom.”

“The conversations are qualitative and any data we gather is point-in-time.”

National’s Education spokesman Paul Goldsmith said counting surplus lunches was “basic information” required for a Government programme costing millions.

Casey did not directly answer questions about whether the counting was compulsory for all schools in the programme, or what prompted the change.

The programme has had $264.9 million dollars in Government funding to date, and $1.5 million of that has been used to monitor and evaluate the programme.

“Ka Ora, Ka Ako is a new programme that is being implemented at scale and at pace.

“We are learning as we go and refining and strengthening our systems as the programme rolls out.”

But National’s education spokesperson Paul Goldsmith said counting uneaten lunches was “basic information” which should have been in place from the start.

“At least the ministry can now say it is measuring what it's managing”.

“It’s quite an expensive programme, you would expect when you are starting something substantial like that up, you should have the systems in place to measure surplus lunches and waste.

Education Minister Chris Hipkins said extra Government school lunches fed students, families or others in need.

“There’s a lot of New Zealanders who can understand the need for the programme, but they don't like to see waste.”

It should be compulsory for every school in the programme to count average numbers of leftover lunches, Goldsmith said.

Act’s David Seymour told Stuff he thought sustained criticism and Stuff reporting on the issue prompted the change in policy.

“At least the ministry can now say it is measuring what it is managing.”

It was vital officials now used the data to ensure the programme became more effective, he said.

“If they don’t do anything about the information they receive, it's almost worse than not knowing.”

Seymour said he still had concerns about the programme, after a written parliamentary question revealed 10 per cent of school lunches were going uneaten across 60 schools in the Bay of Plenty/Waiariki, Hawke’s Bay/Tairāwhiti and Otago/Southland during term one, 2021.

That was “hugely worrying”, and required the Government to investigate carefully what was going on, he said.

A spokesperson for Education Minister Chris Hipkins said the Ka Ora, Ka Ako programme continued to “evolve and be fine-tuned” as would be expected with a relatively new initiative.

The minister had not told officials to change policy and start counting surplus lunches, another spokesperson said.

Hipkins said the programme was “making a huge difference in many communities”.

“Where there are surplus lunches, these are gobbled up by hungry students, their families or people in need in the community.”

“ACT would sooner see kids go hungry than see a single scrap of food go to waste”.