# School lunches in New Zealand

School meals are provided to some students in New Zealand for free through the "Ka Ora, Ka Ako" programme.

## Origins

In 2012, Hone Harawira MP had a private member's bill to provide free breakfast and lunches for all children in decile 1 and 2 schools in New Zealand drawn from the ballot. The Education (Breakfast and Lunch Programmes in Schools) Amendment Bill, better known as the "Feed the Kids Bill", was supported by a broad-based Community Coalition for Food in Schools. A 1News opinion poll found 70 percent support for the Bill's proposal.

## Sixth Labour Government

Until 2020, New Zealand did not have any school meal programme, aside from board-run school breakfasts that were not provided by central government. After assuming office, New Zealand's Labour-led government announced 20,000 children would benefit from school lunches by 2021. Jacinda Ardern has said this programme will be dramatically expanded to 200,000 students by the end of 2021 (25% of national school rolls) should she retain office. By May 2023, the Government's NZ$130 million Ka Ora, Ka Ako free lunch school programme fed over 220,000 students at 989 schools, reaching a quarter of all school students in New Zealand.

## Sixth National Government

Following the 2023 New Zealand general election, a right-wing National-led coalition government was formed. In early March 2024, ACT party leader David Seymour announced that the National-led government would review the "Ka Ora, Ka Ako" school lunch programme, citing food wastage and claiming that it did little to improve school attendance and academic achievement. Several school leaders including Porirua College deputy principal John Topp and attendance officer Mose Skipworth and the health advocacy group Health Coalition Aotearoa expressed concerns that Government plans to scrap or reduce the programme would worsen child poverty and poor educational outcomes. Seymour was also the target of protest action by students at Freyberg High School due to the Government's school lunch review.
On 1 May 2024, Seymour confirmed the Government would continue to fund the "Ka Ora, Ka Ako" programme for a few years until the completion of the programme's review. On 8 May, Seymour released details of the Government's revised school lunch programme. The school meal programme would be expanded to include 10,000 pre-school pre-schoolers in low-equity, non-profit early childhood centres. While the primary school lunch programme would remain the same, the Government would purchase school lunch supplies in bulk for intermediate and secondary schools, with an emphasis on simpler foodstuffs such as sandwiches and fruits rather than sushi, quinoa, couscous, and hummus. In response, Labour's education spokesperson Jan Tinetti welcomed the retention of the school lunch programme but expressed concerns about changes to the secondary school lunch programme. Health Coalition Aotearoa co-hair Professor Boyd Swinburn questioned the nutritional value of bulk-purchased foods while Dish Magazine editor Sarah Tuck defended the nutritional value of quinoa and sushi.
On 22 October 2024, Seymour unveiled the Government's revised "Ka ora, Ka ako" free school lunch programme, which would be launched in Term 1 2024. Seymour said that the revamped programme would save NZ$130 million a year, with meals costing an average of NZ$3. Meals would consist of chicken katsu, butter chicken, lasagne, chicken pasta salad and wraps. Meals for students in Years 0 to 9 would be an average of 240 grams while meals for older students would be at least 300g with additional items including fruit, yoghurt or muesli bars. Schools would receive funding and resources to either prepare their meals internally, via iwi/hapū providers, or external suppliers including Gilmours, Foodstuffs, Watties and Hellers.
In late January 2025, the New Zealand Ministry of Education confirmed that the "Ka Oa Ka Ako" programme served 244,144 students and 1,014 schools. During the opening of the 2025 school year between late January and early February 2025, several schools including Auckland Girls' Grammar School, McAuley High School, Henderson Intermediate School, Kaitao Intermediate School and Massey Primary School reported problems with the revamped school lunch programme including late or missed deliveries, uncooked food, lack of nutrition, food wastage, ham in halal food and a shortage of vegetarian meals. Due to quality issues, some schools were forced to use their own funds to buy replacement meals for pupils.
On 31 January 2025, food provider Compass Group managing director Paul Harvey acknowledged there were problems with the company's gas ovens in Ellerslie and said that the company would reimburse schools that had to buy their own food. The Education Ministry leader of operations and integration Sean Teddy said the Ministry would work with the School Lunch Collective to address outstanding issues at the start of the school year. In response, Associate Education Minister Seymour apologised for "teething issues" in the rollout of the revised school lunch programme and attributed the delays to operational issues behind delivering large amounts of meals. Seymour accepted the school lunch scheme needed improvements but defended cost-cutting measures as necessary to saving taxpayer money. By contrast, Labour's education spokesperson Jan Tinetti criticised the National-led government for prioritising tax cuts over proper nutrition for children.
In late February 2025, Seymour rejected calls to sack school lunch provider School Lunch Collective and argued that the current school lunch programme was better than Labour's iteration. On 1 March, Prime Minister Luxon said that the school lunch programme was experiencing "teething issues" and expressed confidence in Seymour's management of the problem; On 4 March, the Ministry for Primary Industries launched an investigation into School Lunch Collective meals after children were served meals with melted plastic packaging.
On 11 March, the Libelle Group went into liquidation. The company had been contracted by the Compass Group to provide 125,000 meals to the Government's "Ka Ora, Ka Ako" school meal programme. On 12 March, Radio New Zealand reported that the School Lunch Collective had turned to Australian providers to address the shortfall caused by Libelle's liquidation.