Last year, the local eatery provided lunches to 10 schools – serving 2800 meals daily - but that dropped to four schools this year as a result of the coalition Government’s new school lunches programme.
The programme was delivered through the national business model The School Lunch Collective.
Wray and Ngakura won the Pakihi Whai Ora and Supreme Overall awards at the Māori Women’s Development Inc Māori Businesswomen Awards in 2024.
They officially announced Puku Ora’s closure together through a social media video posted last week.
“As many of you know, with the Ministry of Education’s decision to go with the national provider for school lunches ... we have lost a core part of our business which has made it extremely difficult to continue operating,” Wray said.
“We’re a bit heartbroken to have to say goodbye, and over the years we’ve poured our hearts into this place, into nourishing our community.”
In the video, Ngakuru said the decision to close was not easy.
“But as hard as it is to close this chapter, we believe that new beginnings will come of it. While Puku Ora is no longer to continue, we hope that the vision and journey will.”
Ngakura said they were choosing to step back and focus on their families and children “and most importantly our own hauora [health]”.
“We’ve always believed in the kaupapa of living in the highest form of wellness and now it’s time for us to walk that path ourselves.”
Associate Minister of Education David Seymour said the priority of the school lunches programme was delivering lunches to students at an affordable cost to the taxpayer.
“It was impossible to justify the old model when it’s possible to deliver the programme at half the cost,” he said.
“The old model cost $340 million. We now have a programme that costs the taxpayer $170 million per year. Should we almost double that and spend an additional $130 million to get the same result for the children?”
Seymour said they had embraced commercial expertise, used government buying power and generated supply chain efficiencies to realise cost savings.
Nearly 20 businesses and their supplier partners make up The School Lunch Collective and have been contracted for the new programme.
The Gisborne Herald reported on the concerns of local school principals last week, who shared concerns about packaging and nutrition of the new meals.
Another Gisborne school lunch provider, YMCA’s “Y KAI” lunch programme, is supplying seven schools this year, and has picked up Puku Ora’s previous customers – Riverdale, Elgin, Cobham, Awapuni, Te Hapara, Te Wharau and Kaiti schools.
