Associate Education Minister David Seymour announced cuts to the Ka Ora Ka Ako, free lunch scheme earlier this year. File photo Photo: RNZ / Angus Dreaver
A Lower Hutt principal says the current government is attempting to "shut down" the free school lunch scheme after recent cuts meant his school's supplier could no longer provide meals at the mandated budget of $3.50 per student.
Naenae College principal Chris Taylor said since its launch in 2019 the positive impact of the Ka Ora Ka Ako programme has been obvious.
"I was here at the beginning before the lunches came out so I can speak to the fact that our students are doing significantly better in terms of behaviour," he said.
"We used to have fights and drama as kids were hungry and the day drew on.
"We've also noticed an improvement in the kids' concentration levels ... because they have food to keep that kind of mental energy up."
He said as a low-decile school, many whānau in the community relied on the meals.
"It's just an added layer of food that they can rely upon which makes their lives a whole lot easier in terms of providing for their families."
But this will come to an end next year, as Taylor said their supplier was unable to provide meals under the new per-meal budget stipulated as part of the $107 million worth of cuts announced this year.
The scheme introduced by the Labour government in 2019 feeds more than 220,000 students at a cost of about $325m a year.
School lunches must meet minimal saturated fat, salt and added sugar criteria under the Ministry of Education Healthy School Lunches system. Photo: Nate McKinnon / RNZ
Associate Education Minister David Seymour said the government would continue the programme, but the new model would use the government's significant buying power to save money on costs.
But Taylor said in reality, the figures simply did not add up.
"One of the restrictive parts of the [new] programme is the government asked for one supplier across the whole country," he said.
"Our supplier, Kāpura, [they] are very keen on making it cost even, they weren't even that concerned about necessary the profit but [they] couldn't even make it work at that range.
"But they're not able to meet the transport costs ... on top of all the food costs."
He said the changes were, in fact, a cynical attempt by the government "to make the price so restrictive that they can turn around and say that the suppliers couldn't meet the demand rather than coming across as them making the decision that they couldn't fund it any longer".
He said others across the education system felt the same.
"I think most of my colleagues would agree out there that you know they've effectively used this approach to try to shut down what is a really healthy productive, appropriate way of meeting the needs of our kids in their communities."
A dozen schools and early childhood sector groups signed a letter in March asking Prime Minister Christopher Luxon to retain funding for the scheme.
"They're trying to find alternate methods because we can all see the writing on the wall."
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