The Child Poverty Action Group is urging senior
Government Ministers to put children first and find the
money needed to reverse the cuts it has made to the school
lunches programme.
CPAG has today written to Minister
of Finance Nicola Willis with a ‘Budget Bid’ on behalf
of the children of New Zealand.
CPAG Executive
Director Sarita Divis said David Seymour, Erica Stanford,
Winston Peters and Louise Upston had been copied into the
bid and CPAG wanted one of them to put the bid
in.
“It’s been problem after problem with school
lunches this year: late deliveries, flies in food,
inappropriate and unsafe food for students, a student in
hospital with burns. Not to mention excessive wastage and
lost economic opportunities for local community suppliers,”
Ms Divis said.
“The time has come for the
Government to admit the cuts were a mistake and to put
things right by funding the previous model
properly.”
CPAG was also concerned that
nutritional information about the food under the new model
was not clear. Good nutrition is essential for children,
especially if they are not having breakfast or
dinner.
A recent Talbot Mills poll showed 60 percent
of voters want the government to reinstate the previous Ka
Ora, Ka Ako system.
“Budgets and taxes are how we
prioritise the things that really matter and the Government
needs to put children first,” Ms Divis
said.
“Ministers will right now be putting in their
Budget bids for Budget 2025. We ask the Ministers to
consider stepping forward to do the right and compassionate
thing, which is what most Kiwis want, and reverse the cuts
for the children of New Zealand.”
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As well as
reinstating the budgeted amount for food from $3 back to $8
per meal, CPAG wanted schools to once again be able to
source school lunches from local community
suppliers.
“The new model has been bad news for
children. David Seymour continues to say it’s working
well, but Kiwis know that’s just not the case,” CPAG
Deputy Chair Rich Greissman says.
“Funding needs to be
found in Vote Education, which is within the power of both
Ministers Stanford and Seymour.”
Ms Divis said
Minister Upston, as Minister for Child Poverty Reduction,
was also well within her power to call for funding to be
reversed.
“She has prioritised reducing material
hardship in her Child and Youth Strategy over the next two
years. Just
last month she said school lunches were a part of the
Government’s plan to curb rising child poverty
figures,” Ms Divis said.
“Corporate
tax cuts or feeding hungry kids? It’s a no-brainer. The
Government can find the money to do this. It is a
choice.”
Based on the 2023 and 2024
Budget Summary of Initiatives, CPAG refers to estimates of
the cost of restoring school lunches to their 2024 standard,
between $107-115 extra a year.
There are also hidden
costs to the new model, with many schools citing unexpected
costs associated with the new model that are not covered by
the School Lunch Collective.
For example, schools are
now having to employ people to remove waste which comes out
of a school’s operations
budget.
Background
The Ka Ora Ka Ako Healthy
School Lunches programme was introduced in 2020 to meet
genuine unmet needs in New Zealand classrooms and
homes.
It was a policy created by New Zealand First
when it was in government with Labour and championed by
former NZ First MP Tracey Martin which is why Winston Peters
has also been copied into CPAG’s letter.
In the lead
up to the 2023 election, National leader Christopher Luxon
described Ka Ora, Ka Ako as a “good programme” and promised
it would “continue to improve each and every year under a
National government”.
A Ministry of Education
evaluation of the original Ka Ora, Ka Ako in October 2022
found that the wellbeing results of the programme often
exceeded expectations, with even greater benefits for
students who rarely had enough food at home. Other benefits
included less hunger at school, improvement in dietary
patterns and greater local employment.
The Child
Poverty Action group is concerned the new model for school
lunches, along with the cuts to the programme budget, puts
these gains at risk.
Under the Child Poverty Reduction
Act (2018), the Government is legally required to address
child poverty rates in the Budget with specific
policies.
The Child Poverty Action Group believes an
additional $115m a year of funding for the school lunches
programme represents a remarkably small cost when the wider
economic and social benefits of Ka Ora, Ka Ako are
considered.
