Many children will continue to struggle without permanent funding for Ka Ora, Ka Ako, the Healthy School Lunch Programme, according to Health Coalition Aotearoa (HCA).
Budget 2026 provides $212.4 million to extend the current school and ECE lunches programmes for another calendar year, which HCA said does not go far enough.
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“The Child Poverty Report released as part of [the] Budget shows the number of kids living in material hardship is unchanged at 14.3 percent with no chance of meeting legislative targets,” said Health Coalition Aotearoa co-chair Professor Boyd Swinburn from Waipapa Taumata Rau, University of Auckland.
Health Coalition Aotearoa is calling for permanent funding for a ‘3.0 version’ of the programme, combining the best features of the original Ka Ora Ka Ako model and the current low-cost model.
Permanent funding enshrined in law would allow both local providers and children to thrive, they said.
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Health Coalition Aotearoa estimates that only about 40 percent of children living in food-insecure households are now receiving free school lunches and this needs to be increased urgently.
“It is good that the Healthy School Lunch programme has not been stopped because it is a powerful tool for improving food security, child nutrition and educational outcomes,” Professor Swinburn said.
“Kicking the can down the road on permanent funding is bad news for schools and food providers. Not investing in the programme for the long-term means that the programme’s full potential cannot be realised.”
Some schools are keen to innovate by linking the lunch programme with the curriculum or local growers but this is stifled by the uncertainty created by year-by-year funding.
Similarly, some efficiencies which could come from investing in upgraded equipment or regional industrial-scale composting will only come with long term programme certainty.
Professor Lisa Te Morenga (Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei, Te Uri o Hua, Ngāpuhi and Te Rarawa), Health Coalition Aotearoa co-chair and professor of Māori health and nutrition at Massey University said that, while it is positive the Government is extending the school lunch programme, it is a mean and cynical offering.
“The lunches are so bad that tamariki say it’s embarrassing to be seen to be desperate enough to eat them,” Professor Te Morenga said.
“Yet, bad as they are, plenty of students are asking, in private, at the end of the school day, to take the leftovers home.”
“I just wish this government would treat our tamariki with the dignity and care that they deserve. You don’t grow an economy by starving its future workers.”
The lunches need to be more nutritious, appealing and larger for growing children and teens, the co-chairs say.
