Oranga Tamariki’s KFC order to lure kids off roofs at Korowai Manaaki, Te Puna Wai o Tuhinapo

A hundred chicken wings, 52 burgers, 28 pizzas, 32 pottles of chips and 60 original pieces were just some of the takeaways purchased by New Zealand’s child protection agency while trying to lure young people off the roofs of youth facilities in July this year.

Oranga Tamariki spent more than $1000 on Domino’s, KFC and McDonald’s in the space of a week across two incidents at Korowai Manaaki and Te Puna Wai o Tuhinapo, with the young people, as well as Oranga Tamariki staff, police and other emergency personnel receiving the takeaways.

Receipts of the group’s orders, provided to the Herald under the Official Information Act, show the agency visited takeaway shops six times during the incidents and reveal chicken was a real crowd favourite.

Besides the four KFC family feasts and four 20-wing packs, 20 chicken nuggets with sweet and sour sauce and 16 McChicken burgers were purchased from Manurewa McDonald’s.

They didn’t forget those with a sweet tooth, also ordering four chocolate shakes, four fudge sundaes, four apple pies and four raspberry shakes from the store.

The 28 Domino’s pizzas included six vegorama, three meats, classic Hawaiian and pepperoni pizzas, and four cheese pizzas.

In total, the agency forked out $641 on Maccas, $233 on Domino’s and $490 on KFC.

At KFC 10 fizzy drinks were bought, made up of six Coke, two Sprite and two Fanta bottles.

At one point the number of young people parked up on the roof of the Korowai Manaaki facility in South Auckland reached eight and five youths were involved in the roof incident at Te Puna Wai ō Tuhinapo youth justice facility near Christchurch.

Oranga Tamariki residences and community homes deputy chief executive Mike Bush told the Herald earlier this year that the 24-hour roof-top incident at Korowai Manaaki posed a significant risk to staff, emergency services and young people.

“Our staff needed to act in the interest of safety and security. Negotiating the young people off the roof using appropriate tools was a priority.

“It is worth remembering that there were other young people in the residence when this occurred. We had a responsibility to ensure they were able to resume normal activities as quickly as possible.”

He said the takeaways were distributed between the individuals on the roof, staff and emergency services personnel who were present during the incident.

“In this situation, the risk to safety and property outweighed the cost of takeaways. I am comfortable with the way Oranga Tamariki handled the incident at Korowai Manaaki.”