An East Coast school is feeding leftovers from the Government’s free school lunches to their pig amid complaints the meals being delivered are inedible.
Many students at Nūhaka School line up to dispose of the meals, which staff, who make sure the kids try them before throwing them away, say are bland and often the same lunch on repeat.
“Every day, they’re all coming up to line up and throw it away ’cause they’re not into it,” one Nūhaka School teacher told 1News.
The meals – usually two buckets full of food waste – are then passed on to Crackling, the now well-fed school pig.
It’s the latest in a series of complaints plaguing the Ka Ora, Ka Ako Healthy School Lunches programme since it moved away from local providers to the School Lunch Collective as part of the Government’s cost-cutting measure.
Last week, investigations were launched after a Gisborne student was allegedly injured when a lunch spilled onto their leg, causing second-degree burns.
Some schools have complained of lunches arriving late, while others come with melted plastic in its contents.
‘Scared of what the future looks like’
To cover the lunch gap, Nūhaka School staff have been bringing in food from home and using their own money.
“We have a freezer full of bread and, most days, we are using it to make kids sandwiches as the meals delivered are bad,” one teacher said.
Some have started bringing in home-baked goods — and Marmite sandwiches — or buying fish and chips as a quick fix, but staff fear they can’t continue to shoulder the cost.
“We have staff bring from home their snack bars for the kids in class because not all of them have morning tea when they come to school or they don’t eat breakfast so they’re already hungry once they get to school,” Nūhaka School acting principal Tatiana Kereru said.
“I’m actually quite scared of what the future looks like for school lunches.”
Kereru said she was “annoyed” by the changes to the scheme, adding that the old system had been “working great”.
“The kids loved it. There was hardly any food left over, kids we’re coming for seconds.
“It’s disheartening to see our kids are hungry and our resources that we have here depleting.”
‘A misuse of taxpayer-funded property’ — Seymour
Associate Education Minister David Seymour told 1News feeding the meals to Crackling the pig was “a misuse of taxpayer-funded property”.
“Our goal is to make sure that everyone enjoys these lunches so much that they’re almost going on the black market,” Seymour said.
Teacher Diane McCallum said the Government was out of touch with the struggles families face.
“There’s a lack of understanding of what it’s like at grassroots what some of our kids and our families are really struggling with,” she said.
“I think it’s to be able to write it off like that dismisses what some of the challenges that we’re facing, it means such a lot to some of the families. It’s what’s helping them get by in many cases, some children couldn’t come to school without the meals as it becomes a choice – food or school.”
