The Government has quietly changed the name of the school lunches programme, dropping the te reo Māori title.
Cabinet papers obtained by Newstalk ZB under the Official Information Act (OIA) show that in October last year the Government agreed to update the name of the programme to “Healthy School Lunches”.
The scheme was launched in 2020 with the name “Ka Ora, Ka Ako | Healthy School Lunches”.
Associate Education Minister David Seymour, who is responsible for the lunches programme, said in a statement that “people need to know what things are”.
“That’s why we’re using an English name that everyone understands.”
Green MP Teanau Tuiono called the move “racist” as well as “pathetic” and “anti-Māori”.
“Te reo Māori is a beautiful language, it’s an official language of Aotearoa New Zealand. Bilingualism is a good thing. Multilingualism is a good thing,” he said.
Labour’s education spokeswoman, Willow-Jean Prime, labelled Cabinet’s decision “petty”.
“It’s just getting beyond ridiculous.”
She labelled the lunches scheme a “flop” that had “botch-up after botch-up” and questioned why removing the te reo name was “what they are choosing to spend their time and energy on”.
Seymour, in response to the Opposition’s comments, said: “If they’re getting excited about minor administrative issues like this, they’ll be in opposition for a very long time.”
In the OIA response, the Ministry of Education said that last year more than 37 million lunches were served to more than 240,000 students across more than 1000 schools.
“This year, we look forward to making the programme even stronger through collaborative mahi together with schools and our meal suppliers and partners throughout New Zealand,” the ministry said.
The Cabinet minute of decision also states the Government agreed the primary objective of the programme was to mitigate the impact of food insecurity in schools.
A report back to Cabinet from Seymour said: “The original Ka Ora, Ka Ako objectives are no longer fit for purpose,” when noting the importance of mitigating food insecurity as a key area for the programme.
“Our approach to mitigating food insecurity through food programmes should take advantage of all available opportunities for delivery improvement,” the paper added, and endorsed the merits of working in partnership with businesses and engaging with experts.
It brought up the idea of potentially having multiple providers involved, saying “there may also be opportunities for increased competition if provision was spread across more providers than significant provision by a single provider. More options can deliver better outcomes and reduces risk in contexts such as price point negotiations.”
The report also spoke of headwinds with the programme and that it was on a course of improvement, stating: “After some initial challenges, the rollout of the more cost-effective delivery model is showing considerable improvements.”
Officials had reported an increase in positive feedback, from 12.7% to 25.3%, alongside an 88% reduction in complaints and incidents between Term 1 and Term 2 last year.
Forecasting also indicates the Government remains on track to realise $130 million of annual cost efficiencies from the reduced-price lunches model.
In his statement, Seymour reiterated the merits of delivering value for taxpayers: “That’s why we’ve delivered a healthy school lunch programme which gets the same results, and has been forecasted to save the taxpayer almost $300m already.
“We will continue to find ways to make sure the programme feeds kids, and gets value for the taxpayer. Any way to make sure the service performs those functions better will be looked at, including future governance of the programme," the Act leader said.
Azaria Howell is a multimedia reporter working from Parliament’s press gallery. She joined NZME in 2022 and became a Newstalk ZB political reporter in late 2024, with a keen interest in public service agency reform and government spending.