Auckland's Massey Primary School principal says the new school lunches have been an expensive "nightmare", and schools are being given the runaround with unsuitable meals. Photo: Supplied
Schools are continuing to report a bad taste from the government's revamped school lunch programme ... and that's if the meals turn up at all, while one principal has described them as a 'gelatinous mess".
Principals have told Checkpoint that lunches for their Muslim students have contained ham, despite the consumption of pig products being forbidden in Islam.
Papatoetoe Intermediate was given about 450 mac and cheese meals on Monday, all with ham.
Massey Primary also received food that was supposed to be halal, but was not.
The government provider ... the School Lunch Collective had apologised for the mistake and also admitted its halal lunches are quote "halal friendly" rather than halal certified.
The Collective has repeatedly declined to come on Checkpoint, and declined again on Thursday.
Massey Primary Principal Bruce Barnes told Lisa Owens his school's experience with the new school lunches had been a "nightmare", which went well beyond teething problems: "We're just not receiving the menu meals that they're supposed to provide."
The quality of the food was very poor, with some "just a gelatinous mess - it's horrible", he said, while others were "all dry and curled". Once all the metal containers had arrived opened and exposed, he said.
Portions were not enough for growing adolescents, there was not much variety and "no fresh fruit at all", and delivery deadlines were not being met, Barnes said.
Massey Primary School principal Bruce Barnes Photo: Supplied
Another nearby school had received 12 days in a row of butter chicken meals "and nothing else" in that time, he said.
Barnes said he was spending a lot of his time dealing with the problem, was regularly receiving complaints from parents, and in the first few weeks of term the school had already spent $700 from its own budget to feed children who were not being provided the promised halal meals.
After complaints to the Ministry of Education about finding ham in the halal meals, the school had begun receiving Pita Pit meals and on some days all ham sandwiches - but were still not being sent any appropriate halal meals: "They say that they've rectified it, but they haven't", Barnes said.
"And ... we have had no communication with the Collective at all - none. And we're just not getting the meals that they said we would.
"We've got 26 different cultures in our school, we try and cater for most of them and the halal Muslim community make up a proportion of that, and we should be catering to them, and we can't."
Before the new lunch programme this year, their previous suppliers had been good, providing lots of fresh healthy food, with lots of fresh fruit, using local workers and ingredients, he said.
"It's a nightmare - and why should I spend all my time focusing on this, and not on what I actually should be, which is learning and achievement of the students ... It's just something I don't need."
Barnes has had a "stern word" with the school's local MP, and there is an upcoming meeting between West Auckland principals with the minister of Education Erica Stanford in the next couple of weeks, he said: "So we'll see what comes of that."
"I think the only way it's going to change is if the parents all get up in arms and put that sort of pressure on them.
"No-one can change it - the only people that can change in are the Collective, and Seymour," Barnes said.
The Collective and the ministry respond to schools' complaints
While the Collective, which is in charge of the revamped government scheme, would not front a person to be interviewed on Checkpoint, they provided a statement in response to questions about the delivery of food containing ham to Papatoetoe Intermediate, in which they apologised for the delivery error and said that once they were notified, new halal-friendly meals were urgently delivered.
They said additional steps had been introduced to mitigate any future errors and they were working with the Islamic community to reassure them.
Checkpoint also asked the Collective about Barnes' Massey Primary School lunches also containing ham - and also approached the Ministry of Education for comment.
A senior advisor from the Ministry of Education visited Massey Primary and spoke with the principal on Tuesday 18 February, to discuss their concerns. And the ministry had escalated the school's concerns for resolution with the School Lunch Collective.
The ministry said any questions about logistics - like which meals were delivered to the school - should be directed to the School Lunch Collective.
What are the providers meant to supply to schools?
The Ministry said the requirements for school lunch providers say:
The delivered school meals must meet the medical, ethical, and religious requirements of ākonga, making sure that none are excluded from the programme because of their dietary or cultural requirements.
And that halal meals from the School Lunch Collective and other meal providers are made with halal- certified beef and chicken ingredients, and do not contain pork or pork containing ingredients. And the practice used to prepare the food follows very strict cleaning and wash down procedures between each meal production.
It says the Ministry and the Collective are committed to working with the Islamic Community to improve confidence in the halal meals they provide, and met with the Federation of Islamic Associations of New Zealand (FIANZ) this week to look at options for halal certification of their kitchens.
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