There will be pies and Pita Pit on the menu for schools receiving meals from the free lunch programme Ka Ora, Ka Ako tomorrow, allowing the provider to “get on top of our food production”.
In a statement provided to 1News on behalf of Compass that was also sent to schools, the provider said the School Lunch Collective had reached the end of its three-week menu and there will be a “departure from our standard menu”, with pies and cold Pita Pit being delivered.
Special meals will be delivered as normal.
The group running the programme said the change will enable them to “get on top of our food production so that we can continue to improve on delivery and ensure students receive lunch every school day”. (Source: 1News)
“Two food items, including fruit, will also be provided to Year 9 and above students. We recognise that this one-off pie meal doesn’t meet nutritional guidelines, but this enables us to get on top of our food production so that we can continue to improve on delivery and ensure students receive lunch every school day.”
It would also be providing 10,000 cold meals each day to students in Auckland.
“We will be in touch regarding what day this option will be available to your school. We’d like to thank Pita Pit for its support and supplying these cold meals. We will notify you of any future menu changes.”
There have been a series of early issues with the revamped programme, with many schools reporting late lunch delivery and staff going to buy food to give kids something to eat.
‘A little bit of bad food every now and then is not the world’s worst thing’
ACT Party deputy leader Brooke van Velden said she had no problem with a kid having a pie for lunch.
“Maybe things have changed but, when I was a kid, we had pie day when I was younger at primary school. It wasn’t every day, but kids have also got to enjoy a variety of food.”
Labour leader Chris Hipkins said a pie was okay on occasion as a “treat” but the free school lunches should be “healthy rather than unhealthy”.
“It’s showing contempt for young people who deserve to have a free and healthy lunch at school. We had a programme that was working really well, the healthy lunches were being delivered every day, on time. They were being well eaten, the food waste was consistently being reduced because the menu was getting better and more attuned to the tastes of the kids.
“All of that now seems to have been detonated by David Seymour.”
National Minister Chris Bishop said he loved a Mrs Mac’s pie.
“They’re one of the best pies, in my experience.”
When asked whether the pies were not a healthy lunch, he said people ate things all the time that didn’t meet nutritional guidelines.
“A little bit of bad food every now and then is not the world’s worst thing, you’ve got to enjoy life as well. It’s not ideal obviously, David [Seymour] and the team running the school lunch programme will be the first to say that, but look, these things happen.”
Remodelled programme
The six-year-old free lunch programme introduced by the Labour Government was remodelled by the coalition Government last year.
The number of intermediate and secondary school students receiving lunches did not change but $130 million in annual funding was cut by using bigger suppliers.
British multinational Compass Group now ran the programme, tasked with creating nutritious, tasty meals for kids at $3 a head.
However, some schools have been left waiting for food after “operational issues” caused deliveries to arrive hours late.
Henderson Intermediate principal Viv Carr said she had to order $1000 worth of pizza for 750 students after the food arrived an hour and a half late.
McAuley High School deputy principal Miles Sengers said staff had to go up the road to a fruit shop because they were not confident that food would arrive.
Associate Education Minister Seymour, who spearheaded the transformation of the school lunches programme, and the supplier have acknowledged there had been some early issues.
