First lunches in schools delivered

Thousands of children are now receiving a free lunch every day of the school week, as the Government’s free and healthy school lunch programme gets under way for 7,000 students at 31 schools in Hawke’s Bay/Tairāwhiti and Bay of Plenty/Waiariki.

The programme will be extended to up to 21,000 students in around 120 schools, including Otago / Southland, by the start of 2021.

The start of the programme was celebrated as the Prime Minister and Minister for Child Poverty Reduction, Jacinda Ardern served up lunch at Flaxmere Primary in Hawke’s Bay with The Minister of Education, Chris Hipkins.

Most schools have selected external suppliers to provide their lunches, with five opting to prepare their own lunches. All schools in this first tranche have worked hard to meet the requirements of the pilot and their insight will help to inform the ongoing rollout of free lunches in schools.

Flaxmere Primary School is one of 21 schools in the Hawke’s Bay/Tairāwhiti region participating in the pilot programme. The model used by Flaxmere Primary involves whānau as key players in the design and delivery of its lunch programme.

Flaxmere Primary will also have a ‘health, nutrition and wellbeing’ curriculum focus across the school. Through this learning the students will play a key role in contributing to what lunches look like throughout the year.

The free and healthy school lunches programme is one of 75 initiatives from New Zealand’s Child and Youth Wellbeing Strategy launched last year, which was developed with input from 10,000 New Zealanders including 6000 young people.

First free and healthy lunches delivered in schools – Beehive website(external link)

Free and Healthy Lunches in Schools

List of schools delivering lunches in Term 1, 2020

Last reviewed: 17 December 2021 Has this been useful? Give us your feedback