Left is a picture of what Morrinsville cafe Loxies provided to two local primary schools for lunch. On the right is a meal another school received from the new provider last week.
Left is a picture of what Morrinsville cafe Loxies provided to two local primary schools for lunch. On the right is a meal another school received from the new provider last week.
However, Motumaoho School, located just out of Morrinsville, still has until the end of this year before the contract with their current lunch provider, local cafe Loxies, comes to an end.
Then, they will be serviced by the School Lunch Collective, unless they give notice to the Ministry of Education and elect to leave the programme.
Talking to the Waikato Herald, Motumaoho School principal Tina Baptist said she was “insecure” about the programme next year, but full of praise for Loxies, which is run by Morrinsville local Liam Aberhart.
“The programme changed this little school. It’s been really positive ... The kids look forward to the meals and they are eating things they never had before.
“If I compare what the children brought for lunch from home [before we started the programme] – no fruit, packaged muesli bars, chips – they eat differently now.”
Baptist said the school, which has a roll of about 30 children, joined the programme in 2021 before she started her role.
To the school, the programme was about more than healthy lunches.
“We are part of Morrinsville but on the outskirts. Sometimes it feels like we don’t belong anywhere so we saw this [programme] as one way of linking to the community. And we wanted to support local businesses.
On Halloween, Liam Aberhart, of Loxies Cafe in Morrinsville, came dressed up as a dinosaur to deliver the lunch to the children. Photo / Motumaoho School
“It’s about more than just food. It’s about building relationships with the community.”
Baptist said the relationship between the school and Aberhart had been great.
“He is a part of our school now. For example, on Halloween, he came dressed as a dinosaur to deliver the food to the children. There is a relationship there.
“It’s a system that’s working for us.”
Aberhart, who also supplies lunches for Kiwitahi School, said being a part of the programme had been a way for him to give back to the community.
“I always wanted to ... do something for the kids. I love the initiative, I love going for a drive to schools and delivering the food.
“If I come during breaktime I often kinda get mobbed by a bunch of kids asking how I am and what’s for lunch. You usually don’t get that kind of positive exchange [with other catering jobs] – you just deliver the food and go.
“I’m really sad we are going to lose the contract at the end of the year.”
Aberhart said he put “a lot of thought” into the meal plan, which included such dishes as risotto, frittata, along with a wrap day on Mondays and a burger day on Fridays.
Liam Aberhart of Loxies in Morrinsville.
“It’s real food, cooked by real chefs. Not mixed together in a production line ... We cook it and personally deliver it. We try to use local suppliers where possible.
“I can count on one hand how many times we have been late in the past three and a bit years ... It was always like 15 minutes maximum and we never had a day where we didn’t deliver the food.”
He said if he or his team were running late, he would call the two schools directly.
Looking beyond 2025, Aberhart said he especially felt for the kids.
“Everyone deserves a good lunch.”
In his view: “It is disheartening to go online and see what some of these children are getting now.”
The uproar about the reformed school lunch rollout has been huge, with even a website – called Seymourslop.nz – set up to chronicle some of the meals.
The site was set up by an anonymous person or group to catalogue ”some of the Crimes against Cooking [sic] that David Seymour has forced upon an unsuspecting education sector”, it says.
The website takes a swing at Seymour, alleging there had been no science involved in creating the new lunches.
“It turns out there’s actually quite a lot of science behind children’s nutrition (Science David, it’s what we use for evidence). The science tends to show that children who eat well, learn well. We know, it shocked us as well,” it reads on the website.
Associate Minister of Education David Seymour. Photo / Dean Purcell
When approached by the Waikato Herald, Seymour hit back at the website creator.
“The fact that the website is focused on a politician shows that the motivation is political, rather than being concerned about the nutritional value of the lunches being provided. I’m more focused on the feedback from schools and students,” he said.
“The nutritional standards are the exact same as they were under the old programme and have been informed by the Ministry of Health’s Healthy Food and Drink Guidance and tailored to the unique context of the School Lunches programme.”
Seymour defended The Lunch Collective, saying they were doing “a good job” .
“The old model cost $340 million per year, while the new one only costs $170m per year and gets the same results for children.
“Most regions are now receiving 100 per cent of lunches delivered, with on-time delivery to schools at more than 97% this week. The collective have committed to 100% of lunches being delivered on time and I expect them to work with schools to get there.”
Seymour last month acknowledged there would be “varied opinions on the quality of the food served”.
“I don’t expect the meals to be the best students have ever eaten. If most students think, ‘Hey these are pretty good’, I think that is a good result,” he told reporters.
“I do know that [lunch supplier] School Lunch Collective are committed to continuous improvement and ensuring that the quality of the meals served continues to improve.”
The School Lunch Collective didn’t respond to reporters' questions at the time regarding complaints about the quality or taste of the food but provided a statement saying nutritionists and dietitians were involved in menu development.
Baptist said she was feeling “very insecure” about the future of her school’s lunches.
“When we had an athletics day, Liam delivered the food there. If we have an outing, Liam works around it. He goes out of his way to support us. I’m not sure if that’s gonna continue [with the new system].
“I feel like I’m stuck between a rock and a hard place. I know there are schools that are happy [with the new lunches] but I also heard the opposite.
“We just have to wait and see.”
Danielle Zollickhofer is a multimedia journalist and assistant news director at the Waikato Herald. She joined NZME in 2021 and is based in Hamilton.
