Seymour's school lunches are still dire
The enshittification continues
In case you missed it, last week another school found something gross in their school lunches. Benedict Collins from 1 News reported the following:
MPI is investigating an insect that was found in a meal delivered to a school, however we can't comment until the investigation is complete".
It's understood the School Lunch Collective didn't believe it was a maggot but, rather, a worm from a potato.
However, a bug expert who reviewed the photos of the dead larva said they were confident it was a caterpillar, and would have been well and truly cooked and safe to eat.
I don’t know about you, but I don’t really care if it was a maggot, a potato worm, or a caterpillar. I don’t want to eat it, I don’t want to see it in my lunch, and I sure don’t want my child - or any child - eating it either!
Seymour’s disastrous defunding of school lunches has taken decent, healthy, well-received lunches away and replaced it with bulk-produced slop that struggles to meet basic food safety standards. Promises of improvement have not eventuated.
I couldn’t have said it better than Willow-Jean Prime:
First it was exploding lunches, then frozen lunches, then it was plastic and glass, now it’s a bug. This is an insult to our students. Our children deserve better than this.
There is no guarantee that this for-profit enshittified version of lunches will remain, with Seymour refusing to say if it will be kept beyond 2026. New Zealand Educational Institute Te Riu Roa president Ripeka Lessels told The Press:
Before the Government made changes, we had a school lunches programme that worked. The changes delivered a litany of safety, staffing and waste issues. The Government should immediately allow schools to opt back into using in-school or community providers for school lunches rather than the centralised School Lunch Collective.
It is highly likely that schools, if provided with the funding directly, would create better, more edible lunches that supported local jobs in their local community - which is exactly what the Ka Ora Ka Ako was initially designed to do.
Last year, under the previous school lunch scheme, a Northland School Principal noted the benefits that had come from being able to ensure every student had a healthy, nutritious and delicious lunch:.
Attendance has improved, achievement has improved, behaviour has improved, and of course relationships have improved. Staff sit and eat with the children, and practice whakawhanaungatanga [relationship building], which is really important to us.
A decent, well-organised scheme, that supported local employment, rapidly dismantled and turned into something barely fit for purpose.
Disappointing but unsurprising. Please, for the love of all that makes life worth living, vote for a different lot in 2026.
”Barely fit for purpose"? You're too kind.
Seymour refuses to say if it will be kept beyond 2026 !!! If the Regulatory Standards Bill passes will we be on the hook for Compass suing because of reduced profits?