An Auckland school principal has expressed concern at the suitability of the new school lunches programme for Muslim students after being told they were halal-friendly but not halal-certified.
Papatoetoe Intermediate principal Pauline Cornwell told 1News she had been asking for certification for the halal meals from the new provider since the beginning of the term. She received a note two days ago, saying the meals were “halal-friendly” rather than halal-certified.
“I’ve had to notify our Muslim community and give them the option to opt out of the programme; or to take vegetarian meals; or continue with meals that aren’t certified,” she told 1News.
Pies and Pita Pit on the menu as the food provider sorts production issues amid ongoing concerns. (Source: 1News)
Cornwall said she knew it was “disrespectful” to the Muslim community.
“I can’t believe people think it’s okay to not provide what’s required for that community.”
She said 10% to 15% of her students were Muslim.
In a letter to the school community and seen by Stuff, Cornwell said their previous providers were required to have certification.
“Yesterday, I had confirmation that, while the meat sourced is halal, the kitchens are not certified.”
1News has approached Compass, which headed the School Lunch Collective, for comment.
In an email cited by Stuff, managing director of Compass Paul Harvey confirmed the School Lunch Collective’s meals were halal-friendly but not certified.
“I sincerely appreciate the sensitivity around this and would welcome the opportunity to discuss with you and others on how we could further improve upon this as we move forward.”
In reply, Cornwell wrote: “With respect … an item is either halal or it is not. Stating something is halal implies it adheres to Islamic law in regards to the killing and preparation of food.
“Saying food is ‘halal-friendly’, when it obviously does not meet the requirements, disregards the importance of this for our Muslim community and is disrespectful of their religion and culture.
“It would be better not to pretend … say you do not provide food that meets Islamic requirement.”
Halal was an Islamic dietary standard which referred to food and the way it was prepared. It forbade, for example, the eating of pork, and shared utensils to serve meals.
Harvey told Stuff the meals were made with halal-certified beef or chicken ingredients, and did not contain any pork.
“Our team are very well trained, and we have very strict cleaning and wash down procedures between each meal production, although our facility is not halal-certified. Therefore, we class our meals as ‘Halal-Friendly’.”
Federation of Islamic Associations of New Zealand spokesperson Abdur Razzaq said halal meant permissible in Arabic and referred to food allowed under Islamic law.
“In the past, all food served was halal-certified, and they’re not even doing the certification, so we don’t know what is being served.
“We need to acknowledge there have been mistakes and they can easily be corrected. We are not talking about high cost here, we are talking about valuing the diversity New Zealand has.”
Razzaq said the Muslim community wasn’t asking for anything special but also for the vegan, vegetarian, Celiac and Jewish communities who also had dietary requirements.
“That’s the diversity we’re talking about, it’s not just a Muslim issue.”
‘Great cost’
Associate Education Minister David Seymour said the halal friendly approach was “doing a good job at satisfying people’s spiritual concerns” and that moving to a halal-certified approach would come at “great cost”.
“We’ve got to be realistic, going to halal-certified would mean a totally different kitchen with much greater cost, and you have to ask yourself, is the objective here to make sure that we get food to children and do a very good job of making sure that we take care of their preferences, or do we want to go to a certification regime that will put extra cost onto the programme for very little tangible benefit?”
He said the programme was already making every effort to achieve the same thing as a certification would.
Seymour also said there had been “some frustration” with on-time delivery in the first week but that in the second week there had been 100% on-time delivery in all regions except one where there had been 95%.
“Nobody denies that there’s been some late deliveries in the first two weeks and the first couple of days — quite a lot of late deliveries. But, over two weeks, we’ve rapidly improved.”
Labour’s ethnic communities spokesperson Jenny Salesa said New Zealand was a culturally diverse nation where people should feel comfortable expressing their identities.
“I back my local school principal in her push to ensure halal school lunches are, as they claim to be, halal-certified,” said the Panmure-Ōtāhuhu MP.
“David Seymour must front up and apologise to these students and their families for a false claim that has resulted in disrespect to their faith.”
