However, for intermediate and high schoolers there’ll be an option to opt out if parents want to pack their lunches.
Currently, each lunch costs about $8 – but the new model has budgeted $3 a meal.
However, there is concern cheaper meals will mean kids are getting less nutritional value from them.
Health Coalition Aotearoa co-chair Boyd Swinburn told AM there is strong data to show the Ka Ora, Ka Ako scheme is working well. Swinburn said Ka Ora, Ka Ako had to meet set nutritional guidelines but the new programme has too many unknowns.
“There’s a lack of details but I think it’s getting bulk packaged food into schools, giving them a whole bunch of pallets they have to store over the term and then they’ve got to make up the food from those various packaged foods,” he told AM co-host Melissa Chan-Green on Thursday.
“This is stuff that doesn’t have the depth of evidence behind it that the current Ka Ora, Ka Ako programme has. There has been a lot of research and evaluation into the programme, and we know that it is meeting its objectives which are alleviating hunger in schools, improving the nutrition of the kids, providing jobs…and also reducing the barriers to education.”