Minister David Seymour eating lunch at the launch of the revamped school lunch programme. Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
New school lunches - love them, or hate them, and who's keeping track?
"It's pretty bad, I hate it," one year 8 student in Auckland told RNZ about the new school lunches.
But Minister David Seymour has moved from saying feedback was mixed, to being quoted by Newsroom saying "we're getting a lot of feedback from principals who actually say they believe that their children think that the food is better than the previous offerings".
On Wednesday, RNZ set out to find out more.
We asked how the minister was keeping track of positive versus negative feedback.
He had been quoted saying, the positive stories "aren't being reported because good news seldom is".
This was a chance for him to report the positive stories.
We asked Seymour's office: "Could you pls let me know in what format or way that 'lot of feedback' is collected/collated for the Minister. You keep a record of each principal's call, and what they said? A record of emails about this? Pls detail how you record this feedback."
His press secretary responded: "Positive feedback from schools has been emailed to the School Lunch Collective and the Ministry of Education.
"The ministry and area managers are also receiving positive comments when they visit schools.
"I don't believe there is an official record of positive comments from schools maintained."
So we went to the Collective and to the Ministry, asking each to provide copies of representative feedback both positive and negative - this was where the "good news" Seymour had said was not being reported might be.
We also asked them to summarise how much is positive and about what, and how much negative and about what.
The Collective responded that any media enquiries had to go to the PR company Acumen or to the big lunch contractor Compass Group.
On Friday, Acumen sent us a five-line email, quoting Paul Harvey of The School Lunch Collective:
"The School Lunch Collective welcomes feedback from schools.
"There is a feedback portal on the School Lunch Collective website, we also have an 0800 number or, if people prefer they can contact their School Lunch Collective Area Manager.
"This feedback from schools enables us to respond and continue to improve the programme.
"There has been a range of both positive and constructive feedback so far. Key themes include delivery, logistics and enjoyment of the meals."
Harvey did not provide any copies of actual feedback.
RNZ has not heard back from the ministry yet.
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