Co-principal lambasts Govt’s school lunch programme after Rotorua students served single bread roll

By Pokere Paewai of RNZ

Students at a kura in Rotorua were served a single bread roll for lunch on Thursday.

Co-principal of Te Wharekura o Ngāti Rongomai, Renata Curtis, said Thursday’s lunch was a “barbecue bun”, with a limited amount of yoghurt pouches and apples that didn’t cover all the students at the kura.

“The additions only go to some of the juniors so there is not enough yoghurts or apples for the senior classes, so the seniors just get the bread, just got the bun,” she said.

Curtis said most of the schools in the region are served by the same company and therefore have the same menu.

“So some days are better than other days, but we get a fright when it’s a really bad day. They get a stale, frozen, hard, crumbly bun.”

Curtis said under the last Government’s school lunch programme, Te Wharekura o Ngāti Rongomai was served by a company based in Rotorua.

Some students at Te Wharekura o Ngāti Rongomai were served a single "barbecue bun" for lunch. Photo / Supplied to RNZ

Because the company was based locally, it would often visit the school to collect feedback and could change its menu based on that feedback, she said.

But now that school lunches are handled at a national level, it is difficult to decipher who is in charge and the kura is left with questions about who they can turn to in efforts to improve the kai, she said.

“The company that delivers our food is different to the company that makes the food, so if the deliveries are late we reach out to the company that’s sending the food from Tauranga over to Rotorua but they’re not the same people that make the food.”

Curtis said because they don’t know where the food is coming from, they have no idea how it is made or what is in it.

“So even looking at it, it’s unappealing, the kids won’t even try it some days because it just looks like slop.”

Because the food is unappealing, a lot of students aren’t eating it – so rather than saving money with a revamped school lunch scheme, the Government is losing money because there’s so much waste, Curtis said.

“Ehara pea kei roto i te ringaringa o te kamupene ake te nui o ngā hapa, ko te hapa ka timata i te kāwanatanga i te mea nā rātau te whakatau ka toru tara te utu o te kai.”

“Perhaps the majority of the fault isn’t with the companies, the fault starts with the Government because they decided to cut costs to $3 per meal.”

In a statement, a School Lunch Collective spokesperson said Thursday’s barbecue beef and barbecue vegetable buns have been a popular menu item in Ka Ora Ka Ako for several years.

“They meet the agreed nutritional guidelines. To ensure the buns are served at the optimal eating temperature, we sent instructions to schools advising they remove the lids from the delivery boxes about an hour before lunch.”

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