In an open letter, the Murihiku Kai Collective, made up of community groups, local government, and growers from across Southland, said the government’s focus on cutting costs was hurting the local economy.
‘‘Instead of investing in local providers with deep community connections, a multinational corporation has been awarded this significant contract to supply school meals, sending taxpayer dollars overseas.
‘‘Every dollar sent offshore is a dollar lost to our local economy.’’
Last year, The School Lunch Collective, made up of three companies, won a contract to provide free lunches to about 130,000 students in 466 schools throughout New Zealand.
It was understood this decision aimed to save $130 million a year and impacted about 70 smaller food providers in the country which previously had contracts to provide meals to local schools.
The Murihiku collective said the government’s move went against their goal of restoring food resilience in the region.
‘‘We must reclaim our food sovereignty. Supporting local food systems means investing in our future. If we continue on this path of corporate reliance, we risk losing the skills and ability to grow sustainable, seasonal food appropriate for each region.
Among the companies affected by the new scheme was Koha Kai, an award-winning social enterprise that supports individuals with disabilities.
Founder Janice Lee said the enterprise managed to avoid closure but still felt the impact of losing its school lunch contract — it was forced to cut half its staff and will close its community garden by the end of the month.
Ms Lee said that until last year, they provided meals to five schools in Southland and its contract was worth about $600,000 which ‘‘all went to support employment and employment outcome’’.
With the loss of half of its income, the organisation had to make some difficult decisions.
They used to have about 16 staff but had to cut half of those to be able to keep operating and helping the community with its other services, such as providing food for elderly residents.
‘‘It has been a story of reducing everything because we had the teaching programme that was out there.
‘‘So when the guys were learning how to garden, that was helping to support it — so that was the first thing that had to go.’’
It also decided to close its community garden in Ascot which staff had been managing since the first Covid-19 lockdown.
‘‘I saw that the food system was going to be badly impacted because all the nurseries had to close down [at the time] and the price of food was going to go up — so we took over.
‘
The vegetables planted there were also used in the kitchen, allowing Koha Kai to keep costs down while growing gardening skills for its volunteers.
But sadly they were doing the last harvest this week, Ms Lee said.
‘‘We never expected to make money out of the gardens, of course. It’s the job that we’re doing there to support the community that is important.
‘‘But if we can’t afford to do it, because our income has been cut in half, then we’ve got to let it go. We’ll be out of there by the end of the month which is really sad.’’
The Murihiku collective sent the open letter to Invercargill MP Penny Simmonds.
Speaking to the Southland Express this week, she said there was nothing much she could do as it was a decision that was enforced nationwide.
‘‘It’s not specific to Southland and it was to ensure that more schools could be served and some early childhood centres as well.
‘‘What else can I say really, just that it was to get best value for money to ensure that more children could receive the school lunches.’’
Ms Simmonds believed the collective was blending two issues — the school lunches and the matter of food security in Southland.
‘‘I would just note that Southland is a major food exporter and so we do send a lot of our food, not only throughout New Zealand, but obviously overseas.
‘‘That is what enables us to be such a strong contributor to New Zealand’s GDP — around 15% of New Zealand’s GDP for 2% of the population — and so any notion that Southland should just be self-sufficient in supply of food ignores the fact that we are, one, an export nation, and two, Southland is an export province. And that is what our wealth is built on.’’
