A school lunch example at Otahuhu College. Photo: RNZ / Marika Khabazi
Education officials say they have been sent a range of feedback on new school lunches, but the Ministry of Education has not maintained an official record of it.
RNZ asked how records were kept, to balance negative and positive feedback, after the lunch-overhauling minister David Seymour said: "We're getting a lot of feedback from principals who actually say they believe that their children think that the food is better than the previous offerings".
"Given the well-publicised challenges experienced by schools/kura in the rollout of the school lunch programme, it is expected that the majority of feedback we've received were concerns about the delays in delivery, special meal labelling and quality control of meals," the Ministry of Education told RNZ.
Some feedback was positive.
Here are some of the examples RNZ was given:
"Kids thoroughly enjoyed yesterday's lunch, with no complaints. They are all very much looking forward to today's lunch."
"Have received a curry meal three times this week, wants to know when SLC [School Lunch Collective] will return to the posted menu."
"Although they may not have totally met the nutrition guidelines it was lovely to see all of the tauira eating and there being absolutely zero waste to be returned. Perhaps once a week would be an acceptable diversion for the meals?"
"Delivery arrived on time, however, there was a box of special diet meals missing. School phoned SLC delivery and the missing meals were organised, a person arrived to drop them off…"
"The lunches arrived, were hot at the lunch time, and meals were nice. The brownie was also popular. Bigger day tomorrow with the full school… Looking for help with waste management."
"From our perspective it went fantastically! The food was on time and the students enjoyed the meal! And from the cook. 'The whānau seem to be pleased about the lunches their tamariki are receiving & so are the tauira. It makes me love it even more when they come in and personally say 'thank you so much for the yummy lunch'."
"Still shopping from local PaknSave. Grateful to be able to serve their ākonga with fresh local kai … will look to have a māra /garden (to grow their own food) in due course."
"Great start to the year and great start to the lunch programme. We have been receiving lunches early and they have maintained a perfectly heated temperature! Delicious so far also and the size is deceptive, they look small, but they are well proportioned - so great!"
"Lunches were three hours late. School brought food for kids and MOE will reimburse."
"Today's mac n cheese was very popular with students."
"Mac and cheese - thought it was a risotto, it was sticky…. Pene pasta yesterday was a bit better."
"Lunch was on time and great."
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