Luxon's Marmite sandwich suggestion leaves bad taste with school principals

The prime minister's suggestion that parents who are dissatisfied with the new school lunch programme should pack the lunches themselves has not gone down well with school principals.

Christopher Luxon said today that parents who are unhappy at the food being offered in the new school lunch programme should "make a Marmite sandwich and put an apple in a bag".

His comment follows further complaints about the revamped scheme that have come from schools around the motu, including schools in Murchison that were given meals coated in melted plastic.

Associate Education Minister David Seymour - the architect of the scheme - said the government was taking the issue seriously, but it is the latest in a string of concerns from schools who are having to deal with late delivery, repetitive menus and huge wastage.

Massey Primary School Bruce Barnes was unimpressed by the prime minister's comments.

"We're supposed to be feeding all our kids, not just those whose parents can afford to do it.

"That's what the idea of the programme is for, that's not a very constructive comment to make, I don't agree with that."

He said some of his students were completely dependent on getting a meal at school, so they need a nutrient dense lunch - and a Marmite sandwich and an apple does not go far enough.

"When we have every healthy option that we can give our kids, that's what we ought to be doing."

"We're not living in Dickensian times, you know the Oliver Twist syndrome ,this 'please sir I want some more', that's not our life."

He said the prime minister's comments that parents should pack a lunch from home ignored the fact that it was not always possible for families at Massey Primary.

"I've had parents ring up and say that their kids they're dependent on the meal they don't have breakfast, and we don't feed them at lunch, so they don't eat till the evening meal."

'Out of touch'

Kaiapoi North School principal Jason Miles told Midday Report said the prime minister's comments were "absolutely disgraceful" and showed that he was simply fed up that the new system was not working.

"He is out of touch with the current inequities that didn't exist in his in his time."

Miles said hungry children struggled to learn and were often distracted and restless.

"A healthy, nutritious, tasty lunch could be the only substantial meal that child gets for the whole day and a Marmite sandwich and an apple is probably ok some days, but we want to know we are going to get a consistently, healthy nutritious meal for our children so they can learn."

Recent statistics on child poverty show in the year ended June 2024, 17.7 percent of children lived in households with less than 50 percent of the year's median disposable household income after housing costs were deducted, while 13.4 percent of children lived in a household experiencing material hardship - which includes going without fresh fruit or vegetables, because of the cost.

Since 2019, more than 220,000 students across the country have been fed under the Ka Ora Ka Ako lunch programme.

After $107 million worth of cuts were announced last year, the former supplier said it could not meet the new budget of $3.50 per student.

The Ministry of Education made the decision to partner with the School Lunch Collective - run by international company Compass Group - who said it would have 29 production kitchens located around the country.

Since it was launched this year, the new system has had multiple issues, with schools from many different regions raising concerns that the lunches were sometimes late, inedible, repetitive, or failing to meet dietary restrictions.

Papatoetoe High School principal Vaughan Couillault said students had not been disappointed with the quality of the food, but the logistics around the programme left a lot to be desired.

"When lunches turn up at 2.30pm at a number of schools in Auckland, that's too late in the day if kids are hungry at midday."

He said there was a gap between what had been promised and the meals that turned up, in terms of the condition they were and the time they arrived.

With a school roll of 1800, Couilllault said several hundred students had currently opted out of having the lunches - some due to Ramadan - and about 1200 meals were delivered each day.

He said many had the capacity to bring their own lunch, as the prime minister suggested, but it was not always that simple.

"Kids at my place are not saying this is gross and I am really entitled, what we are saying is you can't plan to bring your own Marmite sandwich and an apple if you don't know about it a day or so in advance."

Couilllault said the students deemed in need that received lunches, were no less worthy of nutrition than those were were not said to be in need.

"They are also no less worthy of the deal being done that they signed up for which is that [the meals] are going to turn up and you can trust us and at the moment there has been a lack of trust."

Five straight days of curry

Papatoetoe Intermediate School principal Pauline Cornwell said it had been difficult year for the school lunch programme. Meals were sometimes not delivered on time and there were no Halal meals available for Muslim students, so they were now being provided vegetarian meals.

The lunches were offered to all 730 students to ensure equity and parents were able to choose whether to opt in or not. Last year, about 90 percent of families opted in, but Cornwall said that figure had dropped to just over 70 percent after meals could not be certified as Halalal.

Last year, about 20 meals were sent back each week but this year, sometimes more than half were returned.

The school was recently given curry five days in a row and some children were choosing not to eat the lunches.

The school had also been paying for additional rubbish bins as the uneaten meals were not removed by the company who made them.

"We try and be sustainable and we are not able to do that at the moment."

Cornwall said as a taxpayer, she was frustrated to see money spent on food that was not eaten.

"If we are doing this contract we should do it properly and it should be bang for buck.. there is no point in saying parents should just provide Marmite sandwiches, our school was chosen because we have got so many children in poverty to have lunches provided. That contract was set up, it should be run properly."

Cornwall said the school was working with the School Lunch Collective and the Ministry of Education in the hope of making the programme a success.

"Because all of us who work in these schools know that those children who are living in extreme poverty, need that food...we need them to give them a hand up and an ability to get a good education so that they can get jobs in the future."

Ministry of Education Hautū (leader) of operations and integration Sean Teddy said its Equity Index was used by the Ka Ora, Ka Ako programme to identify schools with the most disadvantaged students.

"Our policy is to not identify those most disadvantaged students within schools. International evidence has shown that targeting free lunches to a cohort of students within a school can make recipients feel stigmatised, which can make them less likely to accept the food."

Teddy said under the previous model, it piloted an approach in larger schools of delivering lunch based on attendance patterns.

The new model had an online ordering portal to allow schools to plan ahead.

"We are working with schools to manage the online ordering portal to plan two weeks ahead based on attendance and dietary requirements for students at school each day."

'Problem after problem'

Rotorua's Kaitao Intermediate principal Phil Palfrey said there had been "problem after problem" with the new programme, and he missed the previous lunch system that had people on the ground in the school and generated much less waste.

Palfrey said he had travelled to schools in London and South Korea and seen their lunch offerings and the difference it made to students' learning.

"If you are a person who has always had food, you don't know what it is like to be hungry so I don't like to be lectured by people who have never been hungry and never seen children who are really hungry," he told Midday Report.

"I believe that New Zealand is a wealthy enough country that we can afford to give our kids a decent meal at lunch times or at breakfast in the mornings."

He said many of the students at Kaitao Intermediate were able to bring their own lunch to school, but it was not always consistent and there were days when they could not.

Palfrey said he missed the school's previous lunch programme - which sometimes included sandwiches and cold meals and was delivered more efficiently with much less waste.

"We had a system that worked perfectly fine, before it was interfered with."

Marmite and an apple not enough - nutritionist

Sally Mckay is a registered nutritionist and co-chair of the food expert group at Health Coalition Aotearoa.

She said a Marmite sandwich and an apple is not enough to get a child through the school day.

"It's going to be pretty low in protein it's going to be pretty high in salt from the Marmite and unless they're eating a lot of sandwiches, it's not going to be very filling either."

McKay said if the bread was multigrain and a slice of cheese or tomato was added, it would help bump up the nutrients and fibre of the meal.

She has been analysing some of the lunches uploaded to The Collective's website and said they are falling short of the nutrition guidelines they were supposed to meet.

"We do have concerns about the current meals they are also very highly processed if you look at the list of ingredients, there's a lot of additives."

Sally put that down to making sure they have a higher shelf life due to some of the meals being made in different cities like Hamilton for Auckland schools.

A regular meeting with Education Minister Erica Standford and her associate David Seymour that was scheduled to take place on Tuesday did not.

School lunches were expected to be top of the agenda.

The meeting was expected to be rescheduled after caucus meetings ran late.

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