Slop for the poors
ACTs meddling is destroying lunches and student achievement in education
If we (as a society) want children who are engaged in their education, who are thriving and resilient, and who go to be contributing members of society, then we (as a society) need to provide decent meals, and do so regularly and well.
A recently published, peer-reviewed, robust paper found that school students who repeatedly experience hunger end up FOUR YEARS BEHIND in their schooling and academic achievement. The authors noted that this was a consistent, repeated and large effect size, which held constant even after adjusting for student socio-economic status. The large datasets studied were clear: being hungry at school and/or home is a major barrier to learning.
Basically, it doesn’t matter how much money you have, if your child is regularly going hungry, they fall behind in their studies. Structural changes to reduce poverty, as well as programmatic responses to feed school children (e.g., providing universal school lunches), must become priorities if we want to improve student achievement across the board.
We had started to do so via the Ka Ora, Ka Ako program (as implemented from 2020-2024). This program was highly effective at reducing hunger at school, and showed improvements across student wellbeing, dietary patterns, local employment, and school attendance1. It also contributed to broader food security and resilience for students and their families2.
Despite strong evidence of the effectiveness of Ka Ora, Ka Ako, and strong support across the country for the local suppliers providing meals to local schools, the incoming coalition government slashed the budget, cut out 75 local providers (resulting in significant job losses), and handed the contract to a large multinational (Compass Group) with a strong history of underperformance and woefully inadequate meal provision.
Unfortunately, their track record seems to be holding true: Photos shared on social media the past two weeks (we are now in Week 2 of Term1) show Compass-provided lunches with small portions unattractively displayed. Dietary requirements have not been provided to schools, meaning these children miss out altogether. Some schools have reported meals arriving very late (sometimes barely before students finish school for the day).
Providing decent meals to school children means providing appetizing, tasty, hot meals of suitable portion sizes. At lunch time. With dietary needs met. Not small portions of dogfood looking slop two hours late.
Source: Vermillion Peirce, P., Jarvis-Child, B., Chu, L., Lennox, K., Kimber, N., Clarke, H., et al. Ka Ora, Ka Ako New Zealand healthy school lunches programme impact evaluation (2022). New Zealand: Ministry of Education. Link: Google Scholar
Source: Aikman, P., and Yates-Pahulu, R. (2023). He Kai Kei Aku Ringa: evaluation of the Iwi and Hapū social procurement and partnership model, under Ka Ora, Ka Ako : The Healthy School Lunches Programme Available at: https://web-assets.education.govt.nz/s3fs-public/2024-11/He-Kai-Kei-Ringa_Evaluation-Report-FINAL-.pdf.
There are certain people in this world, and both Van Velden and Seymour are but two, who have absolutely no regard for anyone or anything that impedes their goal of self aggrandisement and personal profit. The fact that both these sociopaths are in key roles and enacting legislation that negatively affects the lives of thousands of Kiwis both young and old should be of concern to every fairminded person in this country.....and yet here we are
What’s being served (in those photos) is disgusting. I feel so ashamed for Seymour. That is not the standard of food we have in NZ, nor do we have to for any financial reason. Put the catering back in the hands of local & regional community/business which stimulates $$ in local communities