Kia ora

Thank you for the information request below. The Ministry will consider and respond to your request in accordance with the Official Information Act 1982 (the Act).

Under section 15(1) of the Act, we are required to make and inform you of our decision on your request as soon as reasonably practicable and in any case not later than 20 working days after the day on which your request is received. You can therefore expect to receive our decision on your request on or before the 9th of April 2025. If more than 20 working days are needed due to the potential workload and/or consultations involved in answering your request, we will notify you accordingly.

In the interim, if you have any questions about your request, please email [email address].

Melissa Coleman | Senior Ministerial Coordinator
Te Pou Rangatōpū | Corporate

Ngā mihi

Enquiries National Team | Te Tāhuhu o te Mātauranga | Ministry of Education | MC education.govt.nz

We shape an education system that delivers equitable and excellent outcomes He mea tārai e mātou te mātauranga kia rangatira ai, kia mana taurite ai ōna huanga

show quoted sections

Tēnā koe Kalan

 

Thank you for your queries about the school lunches programme. Our focus
is to provide the 242,000 students in the programme a nutritious meal,
every school day. Measuring service levels to make sure healthy meals that
are tasty and cost-effective are provided to students is an important part
of the Ka Ora, Ka Ako | Healthy School Lunches programme.

 

As you know, in October 2024, the Government announced a change to the
school lunches programme to deliver the same quality outcomes while
costing taxpayers less. This was achieved by embracing commercial
expertise, using government buying power, and generating supply chain
efficiencies to realise over $130m of annual cost savings.

 

The School Lunch Collective (SLC) is committed to providing meals to
students who depend on them, and no child should be excluded from
receiving a lunch if they choose to participate. While there were some
early delivery problems by the SLC, on-time delivery of lunches to schools
in March was over 98% every school day.

 

On-time delivery by the SLC is recorded daily, by GPS tracking of the
delivery drivers transporting meals to schools. Meals need to arrive prior
to the school’s lunchtime, as outlined in the deliverables on the ordering
portal. Any meals delivered after this time are not recorded as “on time”
delivery. 

 

Menus are reviewed by the Ministry of Education (the Ministry) at the
beginning of each term to make sure they meet the programme’s nutritional
standards. The SLC has a team of food experts on staff involved in menu
preparation, including chefs, dietitians, and nutritionists. Meeting
nutritional standards is a core service level in the Services Agreement.
The SLC is required to deliver a monthly performance review on nutritional
compliance, satisfaction scores, allergen and cultural and special dietary
management.

 

To measure the nutritional performance, the Ministry will monitor
standards through:

o Individual meal details and spot-checks at production kitchens by
Compass

o survey feedback received from schools each term

o feedback and assessments from the Ministry senior advisor staff onsite
at schools
o quality and nutrition spot-check at schools by independent food
experts.

 

Your email of 12 March 2025 requested the following information:

What is the current cost per and how many school lunches are provided
compared to the cost and number of lunches provided under the previous
labour led government?

Your request has been considered under the Official Information Act 1982
(the Act). While you have asked for specific information about suppliers,
delivery, costings, and meal packaging, please take the opportunity to
check the [1]Ka Ora, Ka Ako | Healthy School Lunches information releases
page on the Ministry’s website for information on the school lunches
programme that is available to the public.

The total cost of the SLC model will be approximately $74m per annum,
based on $3 per student. In addition, the separate Services Agreement for
two additional food items supplied by the SLC is approximately $9m per
annum, based on 84 cents per year 9+ student.

From term 1, 2025 the alternative provision model for intermediate,
secondary, full primary (0-8 years) and composite schools (0-15 years)
will apply for 2025 and 2026. The SLC will serve external model schools
and receive $3 per meal per student, and 84 cents for two additional food
items for year 9+ students. From term 1, 2026, contributing primary
schools (0-6 years) will move to the alternative provision model and price
point of $3. Internal and iwi/hapū model schools will move to the $4 price
point. There is no change for specialist schools and teen parent units in
2025 and 2026.

The aim of the alternative provision model was to save around $107m
annually for 2025. The programme was then projected to save around $130m
for 2025.

The Cabinet paper dated 30 September 2024 available at the link above
states that cost efficiencies created are to be used for additional
support funding where required. Following those instructions, we have
allocated some of the savings to support schools, such as the two
additional food items to meet the nutritional standards for year 9+
students, the $1 extra per lunch, bringing the unit cost for internal
model schools and iwi/hapū providers to $4 per meal, and distribution
onsite support for schools with over 350 students.

You can find information regarding the costs and number of lunches under
the previous model in the published Briefing Note here:
[2]https://web-assets.education.govt.nz/s3f...
. Note that some information has been withheld under section 9(2)(a) of
the Act, to protect the privacy of natural persons. As required under
section 9(1) of the Act, we have considered the public interest in
releasing the information withheld. We do not consider that the public
interest considerations favouring the release of this information are
sufficient to outweigh the need to withhold it at this time.

Please note, we may publish this response on our website after five
working days. Your name and contact details will be removed.

Thank you again for your email. We appreciate hearing about all interest
in the school lunches programme.

You have the right to ask an Ombudsman to review the Ministry’s decision
on your request, in accordance with section 28 of the Act. You can do this
by writing to [3][email address] or to Office of the
Ombudsman, PO Box 10152, Wellington 6143.

Nāku noa, nā,

Official and Parliamentary Information | Ministry of Education | ED

[4]education.govt.nz

He mea tārai e mātou te mātauranga kia rangatira ai, kia mana taurite ai
ōna huanga
We shape an education system that delivers equitable and excellent
outcomes
[5][IMG]

show quoted sections