Teachers and principals have long reported on the educational and behavioural benefits of those students getting a free and healthy lunch.
Unfortunately, the National government then slashed funding for the programme, swapping our healthy, nutritious meals — which provided for our kids and supported the local community — for cheaper, low-quality alternatives.
It has been a disaster.
Lunches arriving late or not at all, being inedible, frozen or burnt, pork being served to Muslim students, meals containing melted plastic or causing burn injuries — every day it feels like there’s more bad news about David Seymour’s school lunches programme.
David Seymour claimed he could make cuts to the programme without harming it, but — as we predicted — simply cut meal size and quality, axed local jobs, kept hungry kids waiting and sent profits overseas. He has utterly failed to deliver for our kids.
In Otago, there are 21 schools across the Dunedin and Taieri electorates that receive these lunches — more than 2500 pupils. These kids deserve better.
A major new analysis found hungry kids ended up years behind their peers in key subjects including maths and reading.
As study author Prof Boyd Swinburn put it: "Clearly, if governments are serious about improving educational outcomes, they should be dealing with this barn-door problem of hunger at school."
Spending money on nutritious and locally made lunches is an investment in our children.
A great example of the locally-made lunches programme working was reported recently in the ODT.
Silverstream School in Mosgiel not only uses local suppliers, but also has pupils and staff make and distribute the meals daily.
It’s tough for families across Aotearoa right now.
While Christopher Luxon thinks it’s easy to call on parents to just "make a Marmite sandwich", he fails to understand the true value these lunches provide, despite his election promises.
Children should not be punished because their parents struggle to provide them with nutritious food.
Last year, more than 51,000 Kiwis joined Labour in calling on the government to save the programme we started in 2020.
We’re now asking you to sign our new petition, which calls on the government to return the programme to Labour’s format.
Join us in calling on Christopher Luxon to show some leadership and return to locally made lunches by signing our petition: www.labour.org.nz/lunches
