Government commits $212m to continue school lunch programme - but changes coming

The Healthy School Lunches programme has been funded for another year, with the government committing $212 million towards an extension.

While the programme would remain as-is for 2027, the associate education minister said it was likely changes would be made for 2028 and beyond.

In 2024, the government made significant changes to the programme, which had been started by the previous government, in order to cut down on costs.

The average cost per meal has now dropped to $3.58 across all suppliers.

The government had initially only kept funding going for the programme for 2025 and 2026, after making significant changes to the delivery and cost of the service from the previous government's version.

In a pre-Budget announcement, Associate Education Minister David Seymour said the programme would be extended for another year, while the government asked "fundamental questions" of the scheme.

"We want to give people certainty. We don't have the runway to design a new system before 2027, so we've kept it going for another year, but also committed to asking questions that should have been asked at the very beginning of the scheme back in 2018," he told RNZ.

"If it's about hunger, why only on school days? If it's about education, why wait til halfway through the day? If it's about assisting poorer students, then why do poor students not get it if they go to wealthier schools? And indeed, why do students from wealthy households get the lunches if they go to poorer schools?"

Funding of $2.9m would go towards exploring answers to some of those questions, with Seymour saying the scheme as it stood was "somewhat untargeted".

The equity index based eligibility of the programme meant some students who needed the lunches were not getting them.

"That's rather paradoxical, that they're missing out while wealthier students are qualifying," he said.

Around half a dozen different possibilities of what the scheme may look like beyond 2027 were being investigated, including looking at changing the delivery time of day.

"If your basic problem is that students can't learn when hungry, it's not obvious why the programme was set up by Labour to deliver the food after more than half of the school periods are gone," Seymour said.

He said $122m would be saved by continuing with the programme as-is in 2027, compared to how much it would cost if the old scheme was still running.

In Term 1 2025, secondary, intermediate, full primary (Years 0 to 8) and composite schools (Years 0 to 15) moved to the alternate model.

Since Term 1 2026, non-intermediate primary schools have also joined the scheme.

The programme was initially plagued with problems, including logistical failures, poor quality meals, and a key provider going into liquidation.

Seymour acknowledged there were "teething issues" with the scheme, but since then, on-time delivery was at almost 100 percent every day, and complaints had fallen by more than 92 percent.

Labour has frequently criticised the changes to the scheme, and has called for a return to the former model.

Its education spokesperson, Ginny Andersen, said the party was "committed to returning to fresh, locally made school lunches", and would provide further details in due course.

"David Seymour's promise for more terrible school lunches only confirms the nightmares will continue for schools and students alike," she said.

Some of the money saved from the programme has funded a pilot scheme by charity KidsCan to provided lunches in early childhood education centres.

A Ministry of Education survey of ECEs released in December found KidsCan was rated 97.5 percent for supplier reliability and consistency, 98.5 percent for supplier food safety and hygiene, 98 percent for communication, 99 percent for flexibility and adaptability, and 95 percent for service and professionalism (from a 42 percent response rate).

The ECE programme would also continue, but the Ministry of Education was going to market to test how lunches were delivered in a way that worked best for ECE services.

Seymour said KidsCan would still be involved, as their performance so far had been "outstanding".

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