Ministry of Education, David Seymour on claims school staff took students’ free lunches

• Ministry of Education staff are addressing allegations that Tuakau College staff ate students’ lunches.
• Associate Education Minister David Seymour reported children had their phones confiscated while trying to call parents.
• The Ministry confirmed the school is working with parents and staff to resolve the issue.

Ministry of Education staff have spoken with the principal of a north Waikato school at the centre of allegations staff are eating school lunch programme meals while students go hungry.

The story emerged after a mother told The Post kids were missing out on the free Ka Ora Ka Ako lunches at Tuakau College, just south of the Auckland-Waikato border, because staff were eating them.

The allegations related to “several” children in one family over several weeks, and also included claims they weren’t allowed to call their parents, associate education minister David Seymour said this afternoon.

“The children at one point tried to call the parents and tell their parents what was happening, they had their phone confiscated because they weren’t allowed to have their phone, so there’s been quite a fracas about this,” he said.

“We’ve asked the Ministry of Education to look into it … we don’t think this is acceptable. Teachers’ job is to teach right from wrong, [it’s] hard to do that when the teacher’s nicking your lunch.”

Later on Friday the ministry’s operations and integration hautū (leader) Sean Teddy confirmed their Auckland office spoke with the school principal on Wednesday “who told us they are working with the parent and staff to resolve the matter”.

“We are assured that the board is doing everything it needs to do. We all agree that the purpose of school lunches programme is to benefit children.”

They weren’t aware of other accusations of a similar nature, but encouraged parents with concerns about issues at school to contact the principal or board in the first instance.

Government-funded lunches are targeted at kids in schools in the most socio-economically deprived areas.

The Ka Ora, Ka Ako school lunches programme was launched in 2019 and today feeds about 235,000 students at schools and kura facing some of the greatest socio-economic barriers.

Tuakau College principal Chris Betty couldn’t be contacted this afternoon but told The Post yesterday that while teachers were able to have the lunches if there were leftovers, there had been times staff would get in first.

“We’ve reiterated to the staff that they are not to do that.”

Kids hadn’t gone hungry, he said, because they’d been offered food by other staff - which the mother told The Post was dry noodles, protein bars and cookies.

The school had requested another meeting with the affected family, including to talk about allegations the children were yelled at and not allowed to call their mum, Betty told The Post.

Employment action would follow if necessary, he said.

Cherie Howie is an Auckland-based reporter who joined the Herald in 2011. She has been a journalist for more than 20 years and specialises in general news and features.

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