Henry Hill School students tucking into their first free school lunches of the year. Photo / Supplied
Henry Hill School students tucking into their first free school lunches of the year. Photo / Supplied
Term has started for students in Hawke's Bay and so have free, government funded lunches to keep bellies full and minds active.
On the menu for the first day of term at Henry Hill School in Napier were ham wraps with salad, an apple and crostini.
Starting in term four last year and term one this year students in 44 primary and secondary schools across Hawke's Bay have been receiving free school lunches.
Henry Hill principal Jason Williams said they opted to start the school lunches programme as early as they could.
"The impact it had on the students was obvious straight away. Within a week we had the majority of kids loving the lunches," he said.
Based on Ministry of Education provided school roll numbers, nearly 10,000 school students in the region are now being provided with free school lunches.
The programme takes a universal approach to minimise stigma, meaning every pupil at the schools will receive a free lunch regardless of parental income.
Williams said some children took a little bit of time to get used to the fresh food they were eating.
"A lot of our kids prior to that had full lunchboxes, but in there was a lot of processed stuff and plastic packaged foods."
Henry Hill's students eating their ham salad wraps which came with an apple and crostini. Photo / Supplied
The principal said teachers at Henry Hill have even noticed a difference in their classes' concentration levels post lunch.
"We've had classroom teachers talk about being able to teach subjects like math in the afternoons - there was no way they could've done that before. They're a lot more wired into learning now."
After a whole term of receiving the lunches from providers MON, Williams advised schools starting this term to keep in contact with their supplier.
"We asked them [MON] from the beginning if they were able to give us a few extras for the staff so we can sit with the kids and eat. We all sat together and we all ate food and talked about the food we were eating."
He said the approach helped some children who were unsure about the food to buy into it.
The school still lets students bring their own food, but Williams said not many do because the food they're given is nice, healthy and free.
"We've heard from parents it's changing their eating habits at home for the better as well."
The first day of lunches for Meeanee School, Central Hawke's Bay College and others was Monday, February 1.
Like Henry Hill, Hastings Girls' High School was another school that chose to start giving lunches to their students towards the end of last year.
A HGHS spokeswoman said the school now has an onsite lunch team making their girls daily midday meals.
