School lunches: $130 million saved, complaints drop 92%, Government says

Associate Education Minister David Seymour says he is pleased to see the Healthy School Lunch Programme has saved more than $130 million and student satisfaction is on the rise.

The school lunch programme that faced criticism over waste and poor food quality has now saved more than $130 million and student satisfaction is on the rise, the Government says.

Associate Education Minister David Seymour said he was pleased to see the Healthy School Lunch Programme Term 3 menu had received positive feedback from three-quarters of students, complaints had fallen by 92%, and more than $130 million in savings had been made.

In Northland, complaints about the school lunch programme have dropped by 96% and more than 99% of meals are now arriving on time and in full.

Ministry of Education operations and integration hautū (leader) Sean Teddy said the School Lunch Collective (SLC) delivers meals every school day to 6654 students at 33 schools in Northland.

“Since March 31, the School Lunch Collective has delivered over 281,059 meals to Northland schools and over 99.67% of meals have been delivered in full and on time.

“Between Term 1 and Term 2, schools using the SLC model in Northland reported a 96% reduction in complaints, which reflects improved service quality and satisfaction.”

He said the term 3 SLC menu was taste-tested by more than 120 students across six North Island regions and resulted in 73% positive feedback.

“The SLC rotates participating schools each term to provide diverse input into meal development.”

Seymour said any parent knows getting children to like something is no easy task.

“I’d say if you’re winning 73% of the time, that’s a great result.”

Since the beginning of Term 1, the programme has delivered more than 13.8 million meals, to 242,000 students, in 1011 schools nationally.

Seymour said the programme has taken on feedback and responded to issues.

“Previously there were issues with meals not arriving on time. The programme got more trucks, streamlined delivery routes, and heard from principals and schools how they could address concerns. Now they deliver on time, more than 98% of the time, every day.

“Many of the previous issues arose from the use of ‘stop gap’ frozen meals, exacerbated by Libelle’s liquidation. This has been fixed. Equipment was upgraded, and staff numbers increased, to increase meal production and control quality better. Production is now exceeding daily targets, and two million meals are expected to be ready for distribution by the start of Term 3.”

He said since March, complaints to the ministry had reduced by 92% and the transparent feedback system allowed the programme to be responsive and effective at improving processes.

“The programme has also already realised taxpayer savings of over $130 million; $8 million of those savings will go to ensuring 10,000 children in early learning services receive a taxpayer-funded lunch every day.”