An Otahuhu College student holds a school lunch earlier this year. Photo: RNZ / Marika Khabazi
After last term's series of mishaps with school lunches Associate Education Minister David Seymour said the new term would start off in "tip top shape".
The government's revamped lunch programme was plagued by problems in term one, with concerns about late, inedible, repetitive or nutritionally lacking lunches - and even a case of melted plastic in one.
But Seymour - who is the architect of the rebooted programme - wanted all issues fixed by term two.
Checkpoint went to see how things were faring at lunchtime.
On Tuesday at Lincoln Heights School which has primary and intermediate students in West Auckland, Deputy Principal Toby Kite was setting up the meals like he does every day in the school hall for their 525 students.
"So, this here is how the lunch has arrived, just opening them for the first time today we have Thai jungle curry, chicken with veggies and rice."
Last term, the school had a long run of the same butter chicken meal.
They also had ham show up in what were supposed to be halal friendly meals. They are really hoping for an improvement this term.
When lunchtime rolls around students line up for their curry lunch, careful to hold the edges to avoid the piping hot container.
Many of the intermediate students take more than one. For the vegetarian and vegan meal - it is jalapeno curry.
Because they arrived at 8.30am - three hours earlier than the Thai chicken curry meals - by lunchtime the jalapeno meals are cold.
Kite admits, at the end of the day, there is quite a bit leftover. But for students eating the chicken curry, it has mostly gone down well.
"It's good, I like the chicken, probably 7 out of 10," said one student. Another said she liked the lunches but some of her classmates did not eat them, "I think it's because of what the lunch looks like," she said.
One student told Checkpoint the meal was far better than term one, "the rice is definitely upgraded, the rice was sometimes a bit crunchy and other times just too soggy".
Other students told Checkpoint the meal was spicy, and they did not eat it.
Toby Kite estimates about 85 percent of the school lunches get eaten each day.
This allows the bigger kids in year 7 and 8 to have seconds or thirds.
Once lunchtime ends, any food waste is collected by the caretaker for compost and the trays are returned to the hall to be collected by Compass the next morning.
But last term's inconsistencies meant there were weeks where the containers did not get collected, leaving a backlog stinking out the hall.
"For me it was probably the worst moment because I had been away on school camp for those two weeks and came back and there's 20 boxes and I know that some of them have something in them."
So far, this week, Compass has come to pick up the waste.
Overcoming stigma
It is a good start.
But principal Leisha Byrnes said there was a way to go to earn back trust after last term's issues.
"Right now, I'd say it's very tentative you're probably sitting on a 50-50, it's great or it's not."
Byrnes said they worked hard on overcoming stigma with free lunches with their previous provider Lunch with Crunch.
But now she said they had gone backwards, with some kids choosing to go hungry rather than eat the lunch some of their mates at school were refusing.
"Some of those bigger kids when they're getting 'ohh, you know, they're yuck ohh nah, not we're not gonna eat that again,' they'd much rather go hungry than look different in front of their friends."
Byrnes is worried it will have an effect on attendance.
"I'm really interested to compare, you know, our attendance with our Lunch with Crunch versus the School Lunch Collective.
"You know, we're back to seeing kids going, actually, I don't want to be the child that's taking a lunch."
Since voicing concerns about issues with the school lunches Byrnes said she was getting feedback that her kids were simply ungrateful.
To that, she has this message.
"Our children and our community are very grateful. They are also taxpayers, the children that we are nurturing will go on to be taxpayers.
"If we invest in this now, the likelihood is that as a nation we will be stronger because we will have children who understand the importance of investing in people who are vulnerable."
Byrnes is grateful for the good start and keen to see it stay consistent.
Checkpoint is aware of one Auckland school which did not receive their lunches on Monday and one that only received vegetarian and vegan meals.
In a written response to Checkpoint the School Lunch Collective said: "The School was initially only delivered special dietary meals on one day this week, however after contacting the School Lunch Collective, a special delivery of the remaining meals was made, reaching the school in time for lunch."
Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
