New Poll: Most Voters Think Parents Should Provide School Lunches

Anneke
Smith, Political reporter

The majority of
voters believe parents are most responsible for providing
school lunches, according to the first RNZ-Reid Research
poll.

The results, gathered between 21 and 27 March,
come after a string of problems bedevilling the scheme –
including late delivery, unappealing food, and even an
exploding meal.

The government’s revamp of the school
lunch programme has received a lot of attention this term
and featured as a topical question in this week’s
poll.

Voters were asked who they thought should be
most responsible for providing school lunches.

Of the
1000 people polled, 61.5 percent said parents, 32.4 percent
said the government via a school lunch programme, 2.5
percent said other and 3.6 percent said they did not
know.

Support for parents was strongest among National
and ACT voters followed by NZ First and then
Labour.

Green and Te Pāti Māori supporters were more
likely to say school lunches should be provided by the
government.

Those on the lowest-incomes were more
likely to name parents as being the most responsible, while
those with the highest were more likely to name the
government.

Political parties’ views

National
leader Christopher Luxon said parents should be providing
school lunches, with the government’s programme serving as a
back stop for hungry kids.

“We’ll continue to provide
a free school lunch programme, it’s important, but for
parents who can afford it, they should be providing their
own lunches.”

Labour leader Chris Hipkins agreed
parents were most responsible, but said that was not a
reason to scrap the lunch programme or to run it into the
ground.

“We established the school lunch programme
targeting the group of kids for whom it was most difficult
for parents to do that and where the kids were most likely
to show up without a lunch, but most families will still
regard that as a parents’ responsibility.”

ACT leader
David Seymour – and the minister responsible for the lunch
programme – said his view had always been that the duty fell
on parents.

“If people bring children into the world
they have a set of moral obligations to that child and when
people don’t fulfill those moral obligations we are all
worse off, particularly innocent children.”

In
contrast, Greens’ co-leader Marama Davidson said providing
school lunches was the government’s responsibility and
believed the initiative should be universal.

“What we
are hearing is how important it is for Aotearoa to make sure
all of our tamariki are fed and that having school lunches,
when they are locally prepared and provided, brings
community together and makes sure that children are looked
after, also for their education.”

Te Pāti Māori
co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer said the government should
fund a school lunch programme that was run by schools and
their communities.

“I absolutely support local
solutions. I think they’re more cost effective, there’s a
multiplier effect within those communities and schools, they
engage more people into those schools and communities and
there’s an overarching community care, not just for the food
but for the children. That’s an ideal model.”

This
poll of 1000 people was conducted by Reid Research, using
quota sampling and weighting to ensure representative cross
section by age, gender and geography. The poll was conducted
through online interviews between 21-27 March 2025 and has a
maximum margin of error of +/- 3.1% at a 95% confidence
level. The report is available here.

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