The Government’s new cut-price school lunch scheme has had a “terrible” start in Rotorua with food trucks arriving up to three hours late, in some cases just before the home-time bell rang.

Principals report buying food from supermarkets to feed hungry students and having to disrupt afternoon classes to ensure “bland” late-arriving meals did not go to waste.

Associate Education Minister David Seymour says a majority of the 242,000 meals nationwide have been delivered on time and the systems would improve. He said he did not expect the meals, which were saving taxpayers $130 million annually, would be loved by everyone.

The School Lunch Collective – a partnership between Compass Group, Libelle Group, and Gilmours that produces the lunches in Hamilton and distributes them around the country – has apologised for the “teething problems”.

Furious schools deal with late lunches

Te Rangihakahaka Centre for Science and Technology principal Renee Gillies said their school lunches were three hours late on Wednesday and an hour late on Tuesday and Thursday.

She described the situation as “terrible”.

“I rang the ministry (on Wednesday) and said I am going to go and buy my hungry kids kai and I’m sending you the bill.”

She said she was told she would be reimbursed.

Te Rangihakahaka Centre for Science and Technology principal Renee Gillies said their school lunches were three hours late on Wednesday and an hour late on Tuesday and Thursday.

She described the situation as “terrible”.

“I rang the ministry (on Wednesday) and said I am going to go and buy my hungry kids kai and I’m sending you the bill.”

She said she was told she would be reimbursed.

Gillies said schools warned this would happen and she fought hard to keep having lunches made in-house, to no avail.

In her view: ”Their logistics are stuffed. … Our kids eat lunch early at 11.30am because our babies need their lunch early.”

The food quality was worse than before, she said.

“It is edible but we could have done it ourselves and better … I feel like it is part of their plan, to make it so horrible that they don’t do it anymore.”

Rotorua Intermediate School Principal Garry de Thierry. Photo / Andrew Warner

Rotorua Intermediate School principal Garry de Thierry said Wednesday’s delivery truck arrived about 2.30pm, just before the end-of-day bell rang at 2.45pm.

De Thierry said better communication about arrival times would have made delays easier to manage.

He said a trial run before the term started worked well, but there was a different driver on Wednesday.

“I felt for the truck driver, by the time he got to us, he looked like he wanted a new job.”

De Thierry said he accepted the big operation would have teething problems.

“Sitting in my office, I can create the best systems in the world, but then you can take it out into the real world and it can turn to kaka.”

On a positive note, he said the meals were warm and students seemed to like them.

He wanted parents and caregivers to know the school had no control over the delays.

Rotorua Primary School principal Fred Whata said their meals arrived at 2pm on Wednesday, about two hours late. Students had to be taken out of class to eat.

Whata said the quality was not as good as last year’s supplier, Fat Dog Cafe, provided.

“I’m going to be straight up … It was bland, no seasoning at all. A lot of the meals came back untouched.”

Kaitao Intermediate principal Phil Palfrey said the school was notified about 11am on Wednesday their lunches would be about an hour late. They arrived at 1.55pm.

“I purchased $530 worth of apples and muesli bars to tide the students over. The organisers have apologised profusely,” Palfrey said.

Mamaku School principal Peter Vos said lunches were delivered “very late” at 1.20pm. The school’s lunchtime is 12.30pm.

“I appreciate it’s early days, but it was disruptive with students eating their lunch in the afternoon instead of learning time taking place.”

Seymour responds

Seymour said the School Lunch Collective was holding itself to account for the problems some schools experienced in the rollout.

“It is important to recognise that this is the first three days of a major programme, requiring 242,000 hot meals to be delivered on time and at the right temperature to schools each day,” Seymour told the Rotorua Daily Post.

“The majority of those meals have been delivered on time and at the right temperature on the first attempt. The delivery processes will only get better and I expect the collective to work with principals to do this.”

He said it was “completely normal” for opinions to vary on the quality of a meal served, “whether it be a Michelin-star restaurant or at your nan’s house”.

He said the collective was “committed to continuous improvement”.

“The new school lunch programme will realise over $130 million of annual cost savings so I don’t expect the meals to be the best students have ever eaten. If most students think ‘hey these are pretty good’, I think that is a good result.”

Paul Harvey from the School Lunch Collective acknowledged the “teething problems” in Rotorua.

“We apologise to the schools and students affected by this and are in contact with them to address these early challenges. We appreciate the patience and support they have given so far.”

More than 127,000 meals were being delivered every school day and the group was “committed to supporting students’ education through the Healthy School Lunches Programme”.

The Ministry of Education was also approached for comment.

Kelly Makiha is a senior journalist who has reported for the Rotorua Daily Post for more than 25 years, covering mainly police, court, human interest and social issues.