John MacDonald: Maybe old school lunches would be better

Can we all just accept now that David Seymour’s school lunch programme is a dog’s breakfast?

With this report out from the Auditor-General saying only 50 percent of the lunches are up-to-scratch on the nutrition front and about 20,000 meals a day aren’t being eaten.

The Associate Education Minister has hit back of course, using his usual tricks of discrediting the report and going on about how much money he’s saved.

Tell that, though, to all the people who have been vindicated by this report.

People like Christchurch principal Peggy Burrows who ended up in a tit-for-tat spat with Seymour over mouldy lunches, and who was to blame.

The Auditor-General’s report paints a pretty shambolic picture. It says last year only 50 percent of the school lunch collective’s meals met the ministry of education’s nutrition standards.

That improved a bit later in the year.

I’ll come back to the nutrition part. Because I think a re-think is needed on that front, but I reckon the biggest concern has to be how much food is being wasted.

Not that that’s a major surprise. because we’ve seen plenty of reports of food being fed to pigs and principals getting into trouble for letting their staff take uneaten food home.

Now I’m a big supporter of the government providing school lunches.

But I can’t support that level of waste. 20,000 meals a day.

I’m a big supporter because, as anyone will tell you, it’s no use sitting a hungry kid in front of a teacher.

You know what it’s like trying to do something yourself when you’re hungry, hopeless, and that’s why we just can’t have hungry kids at school.

And if that means the government feeding these kids at lunchtime, then I’ve got no problem with that.

But I can’t turn a blind eye to 20,000 meals a day being chucked out. Which brings me to the criticism in this Auditor-General’s report that the school lunches aren’t nutritious enough.

I’ve always said that we can go on as much as we like about our school lunches when we were kids being pretty basic.

And I guarantee my school lunches would never have met these nutrition standards the ministry of education has these days for the lunch programme.

The difference is, though, I didn’t go to school hungry in the first place. I had breakfast and I had dinner at night.
Some kids these days don’t, but aren’t we defeating the purpose if the kids themselves aren’t even eating the lunches because they don’t like them?

Which is why I think the ministry of education needs to accept that it's got things wrong. It needs to go back to what you might call the basics and serve up something the kids will actually eat.

And if that means something basic like a cheese sandwich, then do it. Because eating something has to be way better than eating nothing.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Canterbury Mornings podcast with John McDonald
from Newstalk ZB.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
Can we all just accept now that David Seymour's school
lunch program as a dog's breakfast? With this report out
from the Order to General saying only fifty percent of
the lunches are up to scratch on the nutrition front
and about twenty thousand meals a day aren't being eaten
twenty thousand a day. The Assiate Education Minister has hit back,

(00:38):
of course, using his usual tricks of discrediting the report
and going on about how much money he saved.

Speaker 3 (00:43):
We've saved money three hundred and sixty million dollars over
three years that will not be going on the government debt,
that won't be being paid off by the same children
that we're talking about this morning. But what they haven't
done is a comparison of the quality before and after
I took over. So they've been very critical in various ways,

(01:05):
and I'm happy to tie to their criticisms, but they
haven't evaluated the whole program. And it appears that a
lot of the initiation of the report and the feed
into the report came from people that frankly had to
be sacked after they were not able to manage the

(01:25):
program when I came in, and those who previously supplied
the government often at twice the current price. None of
those people are very happy, and they seem to have
had a pretty good hearing from the Order to General.

Speaker 2 (01:38):
So nothing to see here. According to David Seymour tell
that though too all the people who have been vindicated
by this report, people like christ Which principal Peggy Burrows
remember her, She ended up in a tit for tat's
bat with Seymour over the multi lunches and who was
to blame for all of that? So the report, this
is the Order to General's report. It paints a prettish
embolic picture. It says last year only fifty percent of

(02:00):
the school lunch collectives meals met the Ministry of Education's
nutrition standards. A bit later in the year, I'll come
back to the nutrition front because I think it rethinks
a rethink is needed on that particular aspect that I think,
or tell me if I'm wrong, but I reckon the
biggest concern has to be how much food is being wasted.

(02:23):
Not that that's a major surprise, but we've seen plenty
of reports, haven't we food being fed to pigs, principles
getting into strife for letting their staff take uneaten meals home? Now, look, overall,
over arching, my overarching position is that I'm a big
supporter of the government providing school lunches, but I can't
support that level of waste twenty thousand meals a day. Now,

(02:48):
I'm a big supporter because, as anyone will tell you,
it's no use sitting a hungry kid in front of
a teacher. We know what it's like, don't we trying
to do something hungry hopeless? And that's why you just
can't have hungry kids at school, full stop. Can't have it.
And if that means the government feeding these kids at lunchtime,
then I've got no problem with that. But I can't

(03:09):
turn a blind eye to twenty thousand meals a day
being chucked out, which brings me to the criticism in
this order to General's report that the school lunches aren't
nutritious enough. Now, look, I've always said that we can
go on as much as we like about our school
lunches when we were kids, how basic they were, and
how they never did us any harm. And I guarantee

(03:31):
that my school lunches would never have met these nutrition
standards the Ministry of Education has these days for the
lunch program. Difference is, though I didn't go to school
hungery in the first place. I had breakfast and I
had dinner at night seven days a week. Some of
these kids they don't. But there's always a butt. Aren't

(03:53):
we defeating the purpose of this whole thing? If the
kids themselves aren't even eating lunches because they don't like them,
I think we are. And that's why I think the
Ministry of Education needs to accept that it's got this
part of it all wrong, and it needs to go
back to what you might call the basics and needs

(04:14):
to serve up something the kids will actually eat. And
if that means something basic like a cheese sandwich, then
do it, because eating something has to be way better
than eating nothing.

Speaker 1 (04:28):
Caterbory Mornings. For more from Caatebory Mornings with John McDonald,
listen live to news talks It'd be christ Church from
nine am weekdays, or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.