Hi John, 

Earlier this year almost 50,000 New Zealanders signed our petition to save school lunches.

Thanks to your support, in May we succeeded in keeping the full school lunch programme for years 0-6. Now, the Government has gone back on its word, cutting the programme in primary schools – despite saying it wouldn’t.

This means concerning changes to the way the programme operates across primary, intermediate and secondary schools.

The Government were told changes to the school lunch programme would risk children’s achievement, attendance, nutrition and wellbeing. The Ministry of Education even told them $3 a day was not enough to feed secondary kids properly. They made these cuts anyway.

Schools like Naenae College say they won’t be able to deliver the programme next year because they can’t find a supplier to do it for the measly price the programme has been cut to.

This Government is setting the school lunches programme up to fail, and schools deserve better.

National has proven time and time again that they can’t be trusted to fund education. Our young people are paying the price of this Government’s cuts while landlords and tobacco companies get billions in tax breaks.

Kiwi kids deserve better. With your support, we will continue to keep the pressure on this Government to do what’s right for them.

Thanks,

Jan Tinetti, Labour’s Education Spokesperson