Paul Harvey: Compass Group Managing Director and School Lunch Collective spokesperson on the issues with the school lunch programme rollout

Those who provide school lunches are taking a cheat-day today to get on top of food production, following widespread criticism of late deliveries. 

An admission from the Government's new school lunch provider that giving pies and Pita Pit to students wasn't part of the plan. 

Compass Group, which was awarded the contract for the new cheaper school lunch programme, has faced criticism for the issues with the roll out. 

It will today depart from the agreed menu in an effort to get on top of production. 

Paul Harvey from the School Lunch Collective told Mike Hosking there are things they haven't got right, but they're determined to improve. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Slightly reluctant to give the sea time. As I mentioned
before the news but pida at schools today, as the
government's lunch program hits seemingly a snag with the first
three week delivery block complete, providers are using today to
get on top of food production. Apparently, despite the reported
teething issues, one million meals have already been delivered. So
that's the good sign. That's more thane hundred and twenty
seven thousand students each and every day. A lead on

(00:20):
the school lunch Collective is Paul Harvey, who is well,
there's Paul, very good morning to you.

Speaker 2 (00:25):
Good and Mike, thank you for having me.

Speaker 1 (00:27):
Is this a cock up or not?

Speaker 2 (00:29):
Mike gets you know, we acknowledge that today in particular,
you know, wasn't part of the plan. But as you
said right up front, one hundred and twenty seven thousand
meals every day, a million meals. We're taking the opportunity
of ensure that our manufacturing and our supply chain gets
ready to ensure that this program is successful going forward.

Speaker 1 (00:48):
Are you in breach of contract?

Speaker 2 (00:51):
We're in constant conversation with the ministry around contractual obligations,
so you know we're very very close to them on
this meeting daily and having very productive and constructive conversations
with them.

Speaker 1 (01:02):
Are you in breach of contract?

Speaker 2 (01:05):
We know what a contractual obligations are, might.

Speaker 1 (01:08):
And are you in breach of them?

Speaker 2 (01:10):
Well, in terms of our performance expectations, we know what
they are. There are one hundred percent schools on time.
We have business continuity plans in place as well, and
the program as we're going forward, you know we'll be
striving to achieve that.

Speaker 1 (01:23):
Okay, So you are in breach of contract because you're
not meeting your obligations, are you?

Speaker 2 (01:28):
Right now, we are focusing on the meals to the
kids every day and that's essentially the focus for today,
the focus for next week. And you know we're working
closely with the ministry on any sort of contractual challenges
around that.

Speaker 1 (01:40):
Has the media run a witch hunt on.

Speaker 2 (01:41):
You, You know, we're aware of the media conversation. But
Candidy Mike, I'm just focusing on what we need to
do right. Where as a collective, you know, we are
signed up to this responsibility. It's a privilege, candidate about
serving kids every day and we've got to get it right.
And there's some things that we have not done well,
and we're getting those things right. We are now moving

(02:03):
into some better on time deliveries to school this week.
We're in the mid nineties, close to the high nineties.
It's not one hundred percent, and that's why we're continuously
improving our systems and our processes and we've got to
get it right. So I'm aware of the noise, but
I know what we need to do to execute what
we need to do.

Speaker 1 (02:23):
Anything I criticize you on as delivery, the bitching that's
gone on about the distribution and the business of they
can't access it because they can't break the cell offhane,
all of that stuff. That's just nonsense. Why can't you
deliber on time?

Speaker 2 (02:37):
We're essentially when you're mobilizing one hundred and twenty seven
thousand meals every day, you need every part of the
system to work. Minutes matter, and we've found along the way,
you know, we're losing some time. We're putting in place
more labor, putting in place more trucks, changed our dispatch model,
and from where we were where we are now at

(02:57):
the high nineties. We're still twenty odds schools probably a
day out of the four hundred and forty nine that
we're not getting to schools on time. We're communicating proactively
every day with our team to ensure the schools aren't
disrupted because we acknowledged that. But we've got to get
to one hundred percent and that's what I look forward
to celebrating when we do.

Speaker 1 (03:16):
Did you, to put it crudely, shoot your load? You
saw a contract worth millions and you went down and
robbers dog three dollars a meal can't go wrong. It
has gone wrong. You got too excited. Basically, No, not
at all.

Speaker 2 (03:28):
The Collective is a collaboration of some amazing supplies manufacturers
and partners that care about ensuring that ourtomot again, our
kids get meals every day. So this was never around that.
This was about us taking what we found was a
very important topic food for schools so the kids get
the education they deserve. So this collective is an amazing

(03:48):
bunch of people that are you know, is going to
get it right and forward to.

Speaker 1 (03:52):
Okay, cool a second three week block. You'll come back
on this program and you'll give us the good news
that it's all gone well.

Speaker 2 (03:58):
Yeah, for it's sharing that my.

Speaker 1 (04:00):
Fantastic will catch up then Paul Harvey, who is the lead,
and the School Lunch Collective this Morning.

Speaker 2 (04:06):
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