Uneaten school lunches in Northland highlight food waste issues

Whakaora Kai works with a few Northland schools to safely redistribute and rescue uneaten school lunches.

Thousands of school lunches are going uneaten every week in Northland raising the issue of food waste.

Figures from the Ministry of Education showed in March and April this year 236,000 lunches were delivered to Northland schools and 17,400 of those were uneaten.

The snapshot followed Associate Education Minister David Seymour revealing in a response to a parliamentary question that 34,878 (8.15%) meals were not eaten by students nationwide in the week of March 28.

The following week 50,390 (8.97%) meals went uneaten, and 47,079 (7.72%) the week after.

Taipa Area School principal Lisa White said while there had been some improvement in the programme, lunches were still being sent back.

“The average (uneaten lunches) for each day would be 50. Obviously, attendance also affects how many are eaten.”

She said quality was the main reason students were not eating lunches.

“They do not like the flavour. The meals are too dry and there is not enough sauce. The pasta can be gluggy and the sauce is too thick.”

White said they have a fridge for leftover food which students are welcome to take from and many did. At the end of the day a teacher aide empties the remaining food into her pig buckets.

A School Lunch Collective spokesperson said they were unable to provide specific details about which schools return meals or anything to do with the commercial parts of the programme.

“We have introduced daily tracking to ensure we have up-to-date data and are always working closely with schools to reduce their numbers where they can.

“The numbers we deliver are designed to ensure there are enough meals to accommodate fluctuating school rolls as events like school trips, and also absentees take kids out of class.”

Ministry of Education operations and integration leader Sean Teddy reiterated the number of leftover lunches closely related to attendance.

He said the expectation was uneaten meals would be returned to the supplier so meal numbers and surplus could be monitored.

“We are aware of some schools that have chosen to feed others in need that live in their community. We have made schools aware of the safety risk associated with reheating and eating meals that have been frozen and reheated.”

Teddy said managing leftovers and waste was a key focus for the programme as waste had long been an issue in the programme.

Waste was driven by overproduction and student taste preferences, he said. The new model allowed daily waste reporting and menu adjustments, helping reduce surplus and improve transparency.

Whakaora Kai manager Daniela Johnson said the food rescue worked with two schools in Whangārei and two school lunch suppliers to collect food that was safe to redistribute.

Food rescue organisation Whakaora Kai works hard to save food that would have been otherwise wasted.

“There is a huge need for kai in our community. Lots of groups want and use the lunches we distribute as they are tasty, ready prepared and easy to heat up and eat.”

Johnson said there were many challenges with rescuing school meals.

“The system is not made for food rescue, so a lot of the time you can’t rescue and redistribute food because it has likely been at a temperature where bugs can grow for too long.

“Our staff and volunteers are passionate about not wasting food, so we try our hardest to rescue what we can,” she said.

Johnson said while the programme made a huge difference for students who needed food, improvements around waste were needed.

“Food is precious, but uneaten food is worthless. We can do better, and we should do better.”