‘Fantastic’: Stanford, Seymour met as school lunch debacle continues

The ministers in charge of education, Erica Stanford and David Seymour, finally met this morning after previous attempts failed due to scheduling conflicts.

Among the issues on the agenda were the ongoing school lunch issues which intensified yesterday with the liquidation of one of the country’s key providers.

Libelle Group, which delivers around 125,000 meals daily as part of the Government’s free school lunch programme, has gone belly up.

Stanford told the House during oral questioning on Wednesday Seymour had alerted her to “high-scale supply issues” at the provider on February 11.

Speaking to reporters on Tuesday in the hours after the news of Libelle’s liquidation broke, Stanford said she knew that there were some issues but “in terms of what happened today, I didn’t know it was quite at that point”.

Seymour and Stanford described their Wednesday morning meeting positively.

Education Minister Erica Stanford. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Stanford said she had offered Seymour her full support as he resolves the school lunch issues, which include a child suffering second-degree burns from a hot lunch and plastic melting into a meal.

“We had a really productive meeting this morning.”

Seymour said the meeting was “fantastic”.

“We discussed a whole range of issues around the school lunch programme and how it is getting better and what our plan to do that is.

“We have been aware for some time that Libelle is facing issues, and we have been working through to a resolution which I think we have nearly got to.”

Seymour previously said he is working through the issues and hopes to have them addressed by the start of term two.

Associate Education Minister David Seymour facing the media after food provider Libelle Group went into liquidation. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Labour leader Chris Hipkins said if his party won the next election, they would bring back a version of the school lunches programme that resembled the scheme launched in 2020.

Hipkins said it may not be the same programme costs were around $7-$8 a meal for older students. Seymour’s lunches cost around $3 a meal.

“I can’t say it will look exactly as it was and with the same providers and so on because many of those providers have disappeared, but we will certainly move back to a more devolved, locally produced, fresh, healthy lunch model,” Hipkins said.

On Monday at his post-Cabinet press conference, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon addressed the “exploding lunch”, saying to the parents of the child injured: “That was a terrible incident, a really unfortunate one, something that, you know … [I’ve] got huge heart for a parent whose child has been burnt through an exploding lunch like that.”

Julia Gabel is a Wellington-based political reporter. She joined the Herald in 2020 and has most recently focused on data journalism.