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• Parents are upset over  following the scheme’s shake-up.
• Associate Education Minister David Seymour reformed the programme last year, saying it would save taxpayer dollars.
• The lunches are supplied by School Lunch Collective, led by British company .

Parents of kids returning to school are dismayed at new school lunches described as “unidentifiable” following David Seymour’s reforms to the scheme.

An Auckland parent said their kids brought their school meal home as it was delivered late, after lunchtime.

“They complained it didn’t look good.

“We got home and while I was working they brought it to me to eat as they tried it and it was ‘yuck’.”

The meal was supposed to be macaroni cheese but the children thought it was mashed potatoes.

“I normally try to not waste food but when I tasted it, it was just so bland. If I guessed it was a white sauce with not much cheese, couldn’t actually taste the ham, and the veg/mac was so overcooked that they were just soggy.”

An Auckland parent said this meal was "supposed to be mac n cheese" but the "kids thought it was mashed potatoes. "

The quality of the lunches had gone downhill since the change of provider, they said.

“Kids normally loved the lunches last year and would go and check if there was any left at reception to eat or take home, they were that good.”

Tuesday’s lunch this week was butter chicken with no chicken, just rice and sauce, they said.

“The cuts were bad enough, but the issue, in my opinion, is that it looks to all be delivered from the same provider, I don’t know who was doing the lunches last year but they were miles better.”

The family of a child at Sylvia Park School described a different meal as an “unidentifiable pasta ball and lentils” in a post on social media.

“Not one child could stomach the food and so after offers to give food away to local community were declined, all several hundred of these went into the rubbish,” they claimed.

“Food arrived at 2pm, one hour after lunchtime finished.”

A school lunch described as "unidentifiable pasta ball and lentils".

Associate Education Minister David Seymour announced in May last year he would reform the free school lunches programme, known as Ka Ora, Ka Ako, saying it was too expensive and amounted to “wasteful spending”.

The $85 million annual contract was won by the School Lunch Collective, a partnership between Compass Group NZ, Libelle Group and Gilmours.

The new lunch programme directives follow a strict budget of $3 per meal, about $5 cheaper than the previous model.

The School Lunch Collective apologised to schools and students for meals being delivered to students late.

“We acknowledge there have been teething problems in the first days of the Healthy School Lunches Programme,” said spokesman Paul Harvey.

“With over 127,000 meals being sent around the country every school day, we are learning each day, and are committed to supporting students’ education through the Healthy School Lunches Programme.”

The School Lunch Collective didn’t respond to questions regarding complaints about the quality or taste of the food but provided a statement saying nutritionists and dietitians were involved in menu development.

“They’ve undertaken nutritional analysis of recipes and will evaluate and monitor production of the meals to ensure they meet the agreed nutritional guidance,” Harvey said.

Seymour said the School Lunch Collective is “holding itself to account” for the problems some schools have experienced.

“It is important to recognise that this is the first three days of a major programme, requiring 242,000 hot meals to be delivered on time and at the right temperature to schools each day,” he told the Herald.

“The majority of those meals have been delivered on time and at the right temperature on the first attempt. The delivery processes will only get better and I expect the collective to work with principals to do this.”

He acknowledged there will be “varied opinions on the quality of the food served”.

“I don’t expect the meals to be the best students have ever eaten. If most students think, ‘Hey these are pretty good’, I think that is a good result.

“I do know that the School Lunch Collective are committed to continuous improvement and ensuring that the quality of the meals served continues to improve.”

Labour education spokesperson Jan Tinetti said the decision to “prioritise cuts over proper nutrition for our kids is a disgrace”.

“This Government slashed school lunch funding and handed the job to a global corporation instead of supporting local suppliers – now kids are stuck with worse meals,” she said.

Tinetti took aim at Prime Minister Christopher Luxon for not intervening with Seymour’s reforms to the scheme.

“Rather than showing leadership and prioritising our kids’ wellbeing, Christopher Luxon followed David Seymour’s reckless advice and chose cuts over quality.”

Tinetti said she “had heard similar horror stories” from former colleagues in the education area about the meals, alongside posts on social media.

Jaime Lyth is a multimedia journalist for the New Zealand Herald, focusing on crime and breaking news. Lyth began working under the Herald masthead in 2021 as a reporter for the Northern Advocate in Whangārei.