Ministry Staff Supporting School Lunch Programme Spend $130,000 On Travel In A Year

Staff at the Ministry of Education assigned to the Healthy School Lunches programme spent about $130,000 on travel in a year.

Remodelled under Associate Education Minister David Seymour in an effort to save taxpayer money, the programme has come under renewed criticism this week after the Audit Office found unfair procurement practices and inadequate monitoring of value for money.

Now, an Official Information Act response to a request from the Taxpayers' Union has revealed details around staffing and travel expenses.

The documents show the equivalent of 37 total full-time staff work at the ministry work on the school lunches programme, which is largely delivered through external providers.

Nine of those had "manager" job titles, a further 22 were senior, principal or lead advisors, with the remainder being four programme coordinators and a "development chef".

Advertisement - scroll to continue reading

Two communications advisors were also dedicated to the scheme, with the ministry citing the need for continuity on the programmes.

"For example, across 2025, the communications team responded to over 1500 requests for information regarding the Healthy School Lunches programme."

The 12 staff hired since the start of 2025 were on starting rates of a combined minimum $1.1 million a year, half of those in senior roles earning more than $100,000 a year.

Recruitment since 1 January 2025 includes:

• One strategy and partnerships manager in a band of at least $142k to $214k*
• Two service delivery managers on at least $121k to $181k*
• Three staff in a senior administrator band of about $100k to $108k
• Six senior advisors on about $74k to $86k

* Uses pay band information from late 2023 to mid 2024

The general manager of the programme alone spent more than $17,600 between April 2025 and the start of March on accommodation and travel between Wellington and his home in Rotorua.

More than $10,000 was spent in the same time period on one staff member taking three trips - including flights, accommodation, meals, transport and parking - to the Chatham Islands to "implement the internal model at three schools".

The ministry's response also said it had no "analysis, briefings or advice" on appropriate staffing for a programme primarily delivering services through external providers.

In a statement, Taxpayers' Union spokesperson Austin Ellingham-Banks said the ministry had "outsourced the lunches but kept the bureaucracy".

"For all that overhead, the Auditor-General found the ministry 'did not have sufficiently robust mechanisms to measure, manage, and monitor' the programme. What on earth are they all doing?"

In a statement, Associate Education Minister David Seymour said the staff are managing 333 providers delivering 36,000,000 meals to 1019 schools, per year.

"The taxpayers union are right there are contracts, but when you manage contracts worth over $200m a year you do actually need to monitor them.

"The ACT Party campaigned to stop the whole program but was overruled. The Taxpayers's Union ought to put a smile on it after we saved $360 million for the taxpayer, but I've never heard them celebrate it."

© Scoop Media