School Lunches Failing To Meet Nutrition And Energy Standards: Urgent Action Needed

New analysis shows that meals provided by the School Lunch Collective (SLC) under the Ka Ora, Ka Ako | Healthy School Lunches Programme fail to meet critical nutritional standards and energy needs.

Because of a lack of information, only 13 of the 53 meals analysed could be assessed against the Ministry of Education’s Nutrition Standards for Ka Ora, Ka Ako. Despite SLC being contractually required to provide nutritious meals, none of those 13 met the standards according to the latest Briefing from the Public Health Communication Centre.

Briefing authors say SLC, which supplies over half of the students in the programme, has failed to fully disclose sufficient information to assess nutrition compliance of all meals despite its website stating, ‘transparency is at the heart of what we do’.

The authors were able to assess the energy content of all 53 meals against the recommended requirements for school-age children.

Co-author Dr Sally Mackay, a public health nutritionist from the University of Auckland, says the meals provided only half the expected energy for a school lunch and 30-40% less energy than meals under the previous model.

“This is particularly concerning given that more than one in four children in Aotearoa New Zealand live in households where food insecurity is an issue.”

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“These lunches are failing our children,” she says. “Instead of improving upon past concerns, the nutritional value of school meals has actually worsened under the new centralised provider model.”

“The energy and ingredient information for all meals should be provided, including a percentage contribution of each ingredient to the total meal weight, to determine if the lunches meet the Ka Ora Ka Ako Nutrition Standards. From the meals with sufficient information, our analysis shows a lack of compliance,” says Dr Mackay

“We are calling for immediate action. At a minimum, there must be full transparency around meal ingredients and energy content, an independent nutrition review, and a rapid increase in meal quality to meet the standards.”

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