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Analysis: Schools say it’s impossible not to have some wastage within the school lunches programme. So how much is acceptable for the New Zealand taxpayer? Indira Stewart examines the waste equation.

“10,000 meals every day go to the pigs.”

It’s a phrase that’s been repeated many times by ACT leader and Associate Education Minister David Seymour when talking about the Ka Ora, Ka Ako school lunches programme.

His criticism comes from waste data found in a 2021 Treasury report on the scheme which provides free meals to more than 220,000 vulnerable kids across Aotearoa.

Up to 10,000 meals a day were wasted, according to the report. That works out to about 4.5% of all school lunch meals – or $25 million, according to Seymour in a 2023 press release, which did not provide detailed calculations.

In a cost-of-living crisis where the New Zealand taxpayer is feeling the pinch, most agree a review of a scheme that costs several hundred million dollars a year is a good and fair idea.

But schools 1News has spoken to are still very concerned Seymour is looking to cut “up to half” of the funding to a programme which they say has been a game changer.

The schools also argue it would be impossible to have zero meals wasted in such a large scheme. If that’s the case, what would be an acceptable amount of waste?

Is waste inevitable?

Wastage often depends on what is being served up for lunch (Source: 1News)

Every school lunch contractor we spoke to said some waste was to be expected.

“Has Seymour ever catered to a school camp?” said one. “[A] 4.5% waste [rate] for a food programme that’s feeding 220,000 kids a day – I would call that a success rate.”

In comparison to countries who have been doing it longer, New Zealand’s school lunches programme seems decades ahead when it comes to progress on waste.

A case study on Japan’s school lunch programme, which was established in 1954, found its food waste at a “relatively low” level of 6.9% by 2015. That same year the United States’ National School Lunch Programme, created in 1946, reported 30% of its food was wasted.

However, another contractor argued that 4.5% still represented quite a lot of money.

“I would say 2-3% of waste is reasonably acceptable,” they said.

“I believe if you gave [the school lunches contracts] to the right people, that percentage would come down. It could probably get down to 2%.”

Two percent. That’s 4,400 meals wasted a day – or $11 million down the drain every year, going by David Seymour’s math.

What’s causing the waste?

Some schools feel contractors are making lunches kids won't want to eat (Source: 1News)

Staff from more than 50 schools around the country responded to our social media questions about waste.

Thirty of the responses said no meals were left over by the end of the day. For many of those schools, most or all meals were taken at lunch time and any leftovers were taken home by students.

Ten of the responses said there were dozens of leftovers which were then donated to charities, foodbanks or local pātaka (food pantries) in the community.

Eleven of the responses said they were concerned about waste levels. All 11 were using external contractors.

“They’re making the wrong stuff,” said one school. “Who’s going to eat almond and carrot? They’re kids!

“If they were making food that kids actually love to eat, while covering all the nutritional bases, then kids would absolutely eat it. It would absolutely reduce waste.”

Complaints about contractors were a common theme in the responses:

“Last year, [out of] a school of 300 we would have 150 leftover lunches... they were awful meals. We changed supplier. Now we might have about 50 left over that we give out to our community. We definitely have better food with [our] new supplier.”
“There has been sooo much wastage at our school... Only 3/25 kids willingly went and got a sandwich (lunches were delivered on a school trip) and the teachers tried to force the others to eat... They were literally choosing to starve over eating a school lunch.”
“Some days the lunches smell off and the kids who are hungry will eat it or open to see what it is and leave it or throw it in the bin... On a bad week, maybe two days’ worth of free lunches go to waste out of the five and on a good week one day’s worth of lunches go to waste.”
“We have been struggling a lot with our contractor. It takes ages for them to stop giving us certain food. We get bad quality cold lunches and they have told us that we need to just keep encouraging our students to eat it.”
“I think the free lunches are awesome but we need better regulations with the contractors. They sent us photos and samples in the beginning and it is nowhere near the same quality of what they actually supply.”

So, what is working?

Students at Auckland's Manurewa High School say the free school lunch programme makes a difference to their learning.

The feedback we received had two clear themes when it came to schools that had little to no waste.

Schools who catered their lunches internally were “nailing it”, as one response said. They knew the attendance roll that day, they knew what the students liked and they were able to adapt fast to changes.

Schools that offered hot lunches as opposed to cold lunches also saw little to no leftover meals. Sandwiches and cold lunches were frequently mentioned as being wasted.

“Some days we have 4 or 5 left over, but it depends on the meals. The hot meals tend to be a hit at our school, so those all go.”
“We get like at least 40-50 leftovers of the cold lunches and not many of the hot ones.”
“No leftovers now that they only do hot lunches. When they were doing sandwiches there was heaps left over.”
“It depends on the lunch. We have a lot of cold lunches left over but almost no hot lunches left over.”
“Older kids will eat most kai like hot cooked meals; rice/curry and other hot meats and pasta, whereas the juniors are a little pickier and will eat anything processed or on bread. Like fried tenders, macaroni, sandwiches. With the Juniors, at least half of the less processed kai doesn’t get eaten.”
“At worst it could be 200, give or take, left over but that also depends on the lunch that day. You know kids would eat the hot meals over cold sandwiches, especially during winter.”

But all contractors and school staff said the programme was vital and wanted it to stay.

“It’s not a perfect programme,” one contractor said. “It’s still fairly new and we’ve had to learn fast about what works and what doesn’t.

“This government seems to be cutting everything at the moment, but I don’t believe the programme should ever go. It’s really good for our kids that need it.”

Contractors respond to waste claims

Contractors say efforts are already being made to reduce food wastage. (Source: 1News)

External contractors are selected through a tender process. Schools can choose from a panel of approved suppliers that have met minimum standards of food hygiene, waste management and food preparation.

1News cold-called dozens of contractors on the Education Ministry’s list of suppliers for the scheme.

Most declined to speak. But four contractors did agree to speak under anonymity. They said efforts were being made to reduce waste.

“I can tell from my wastage what the kids like,” said one contractor who monitors their weekly waste.

“If they’ve only taken one bite of something – that’s when I know I’m not doing my job properly.”

It was easier for smaller external contractors to make adjustments to reduce waste, they said, recognising larger commercial contractors had more difficulty.

Open communication between the school and contractors was crucial.

“I work with the school and we try every day to ensure our waste is low. Instead of a cruise ship that I have to turn around, it’s just me turning around a little dinghy so my wastage is extremely low. Between 200 kids I get three kilograms of waste, which is bones and [fruit and vegetable] skin,” they said.

“If there is a spike in the waste then we change either an aspect of the meal or the whole meal.”

According to this contractor’s waste data, it had an average of 4.3 kilograms of daily waste between March 11 and April 8 this year. The waste included bones and fruit peels.

“I have seen high waste in some schools with other contractors. There’s so many factors as to why kids don’t like the food. Maybe it’s a soup day and it turned out to be sunny and hot. I can’t manage the weather. But if it’s a cold day – everybody’s like, 'where’s the soup?’

“At the end of the day, if my waste is high I’m not doing my job because that’s food that needs to be in their bellies.”

Changing a generation's eating habits

Some kids are used to just eating whatever is cheap, one contractor said. (Source: 1News)

The school lunches scheme is about much more than just putting a plate of food in front of a child, one contractor said.

“We are working with communities who haven’t had access to healthier nutrition for lots of reasons and we have had to get them used to a healthy, home-cooked meal because some kids have just been used to eating foods like noodles – and whatever’s cheap,” they said.

“We have an obesity problem and high diabetes rates in our areas. This is about changing a community’s habits and a generation’s feeding habits. And if we run [the school lunches programme] for long enough it will make a huge difference in the community.”

The Ka Ora, Ka Ako programme has nutrition requirements set out for each contractor. It includes a set amount of protein, vegetables and/or fruit in the meals fed to children. The programme targets the 25% of students in schools and kura facing the greatest socio-economic barriers across Aotearoa.

One of the contractors spoken to said they were “50% with David Seymour” when it comes to the programme.

"Yes, let’s not waste more food because there’s enough waste in this country already. But the other side is, I can see this programme works for so many kids. It’s so important and no one wants it cut.”