WelCom May 2024
Students from six schools in the Wellington area visited Parliament on 10 April to urge the government not to make any cuts or changes to the free school lunches programme. It has been proposing to review the programme ahead of Budget 2024.
Students from Bishop Viard College, Porirua College, Naenae College, Taita College, Arakura School, and Ngāti Toa School met with MPs from Labour, the Greens, and Te Pāti Māori to discuss the Ka Ako Ka Ora programme.
Over a nutritious lunch in the Beehive’s function room, the students told the MPs the programme had improved attendance, and took burdens off students, parents, and teachers.
‘It also saves parents from buying kids’ lunch the day before school, because there’s a cost-of-living inflation in New Zealand,’ Henry Tanuvasa from Bishop Viard College said.
Bishop Viard College principal Chris Theobald said 420 students at his college were provided with meals each school day. ‘It motivates our kids to come to school it energises them for the afternoon,’ he said.
Chris Theobald said because the lunches were provided in-house, ‘there was very, very minimal to zero wastage’.
Source: RNZ
