Bay of Plenty Times
  • Bay of Plenty Times home
  • Latest news
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
  • Sport
  • Video
  • Death notices
  • Classifieds

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • On The Up
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Residential property listings
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology
  • Sport

Locations

  • Coromandel & Hauraki
  • Katikati
  • Tauranga
  • Mount Maunganui
  • Pāpāmoa
  • Te Puke
  • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua

Media

  • Video
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-Editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

Weather

  • Thames
  • Tauranga
  • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Bay of Plenty Times

Jan Tinetti removes social post criticising school lunch made when Labour in power

By Jamie Ensor & Azaria Howell
NZ Herald·
30 Jan, 2025 10:10 PM4 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

President Trump blames diversity hires after deadly Washington DC plane crash and public servants report high workloads following job cuts. Video / NZ Herald

Labour’s Jan Tinetti’s attempt to criticise the Government’s free school lunch programme has backfired after she laid into a burger made when her party was in power.

An online video, shared to Labour and Tinetti’s Instagram accounts, featured several pictures of school lunches that Tinetti labelled as “disgraceful”. The post has since been removed.

“I think that this is a hamburger. I am not certain, but I am thinking that’s what it is,” she said, superimposed over an image of a burger.

That image, however, is more than a couple of years old, meaning it predates the changes the current Government made to the school lunch programme. It featured in a Herald story in 2022 in which a mother complained about how “disgusting” the lunch was.

Labour was in Government in 2022 when that picture was shared, with Chris Hipkins the Education Minister at the time. Tinetti, who is based in Tauranga, was the Associate Education Minister.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Tinetti said in a statement that the post had been removed but children deserved better than the “subpar lunches” currently being served up.

This is just embarrassing. Labour are so desperate to criticise the new school lunch programme they're using pictures of lunches made under their government... pic.twitter.com/nBdWeBWBYY

— ACT New Zealand (@actparty) January 30, 2025

David Seymour, the Associate Education Minister currently in charge of the programme, said Tinetti faced the same issues when Labour was in power despite spending more

“So she could do with being a bit more gracious,” he told the Herald.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

“This is a huge programme, with 242,000 hot meals needing to be delivered on time and at the right temperature each day. We need to be saving money and delivering at the same time.”

The Act Party posted a shortened version of Tinetti’s video online (not featuring other images of lunches), saying it was “embarassing” that Labour was criticising a “school lunch made when they were in government”.

“Labour are so desperate to criticise the new school lunch programme they’re using pictures of lunches made under their government”

In 2020, the Labour Government began funding free school lunches in schools, with an initial pilot programme expanded over time.

After taking office in 2023, the current Government made changes to the programme that resulted in $130 million of annual cost savings. Seymour said every student who had received lunches would continue to do so and the lunches would be “nutritious”.

But principals this week complained about the quality of the meals, some of which turned up late to schools.

Auckland Primary Principals' Association president Kyle Brewerton said kids have been comparing the lunches to “dog food” and refusing to eat them.

“The quality was sort of being touted [last year] as something that was going to be quite nutritious and delicious, and we haven’t experienced that yet.”

Seymour told Newstalk ZB on Friday that focus was being placed on the worst reviews of the lunch to make it seem “terrible”.

“This is a Government with a $17 billion deficit, we have managed to save $130 million on this programme while actually providing meals for more kids this year.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

“We are doing something new, it is only day five, day four with school holidays in some places. So we’ve got to get a bit of a reality check.”

Some lunches supplied by the School Lunch Collective will also arrive late today after the group experienced issues with its ovens in Auckland.

“We apologise to you and to the students for the number of times this week the lunches have arrived late. We know these lunches are important to you and the School Lunch Collective is working urgently to make sure next week you get your lunches on time.

“If your meals are late to arrive and you would like to purchase meals to feed your students, you will be reimbursed for the cost of the food.”

Jamie Ensor is a political reporter in the NZ Herald Press Gallery team based at Parliament. He was previously a TV reporter and digital producer in the Newshub Press Gallery office.


Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Save

    Share this article

Latest from Bay of Plenty Times

Bay of Plenty TimesUpdated

Tears as private ambulance operators found guilty of forgery; altering documents

24 Jun 04:42 AM
Bay of Plenty Times

Major supermarket apologises for humiliating woman with false shoplifting claim

24 Jun 04:36 AM
Bay of Plenty Times

How Federated Farmers shapes policy for Bay of Plenty farmers

24 Jun 02:30 AM

Kaibosh gets a clean-energy boost in the fight against food waste

sponsored
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Bay of Plenty Times

Tears as private ambulance operators found guilty of forgery; altering documents

Tears as private ambulance operators found guilty of forgery; altering documents

24 Jun 04:42 AM

Private ambulance operators say they injected drugs into fruit as training exercises.

Major supermarket apologises for humiliating woman with false shoplifting claim

Major supermarket apologises for humiliating woman with false shoplifting claim

24 Jun 04:36 AM
How Federated Farmers shapes policy for Bay of Plenty farmers

How Federated Farmers shapes policy for Bay of Plenty farmers

24 Jun 02:30 AM
'Intolerable': Delays for quake-prone fire station rebuild sparks union ire

'Intolerable': Delays for quake-prone fire station rebuild sparks union ire

23 Jun 06:00 PM
Engage and explore one of the most remote places on Earth in comfort and style
sponsored

Engage and explore one of the most remote places on Earth in comfort and style

NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • Bay of Plenty Times e-edition
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Subscribe to the Bay of Plenty Times
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • NZME Events
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP