March 05, 2024
School lunch cuts cruel
Greens’ co-leader Marama Davidson says a call from ACT leader David Seymour to halve the spending on government-funded school lunches is blatant cruelty.
As Associate Education Minister, Mr Seymour is reviewing Ka Ora, Ka Ako, which provides free healthy lunches to more than 220,000 students – about a quarter of the total.
He claims 10,000 lunches are wasted each day and there is no hard evidence the $300 million programme improves school attendance or achievement.
Ms Davidson says schools in the programme are clear about its benefits, and the Green Party wants to see it extended.
“Why should we not feed hungry children and whanau? Of course we should. That in itself is enough of an outcome, that children are not hungry. Achieved. Done. Let’s do more of that,” she says.
Ms Davidson says what would improve the scheme is giving schools more mana motuhake to set up their own kitchens and work with local providers and whanau to find out with tamariki want.