Healthy lunches announcement leaves schools confused
By David Hill, Local Democracy Reporter
The latest announcement on the future of the Healthy School Lunches Programme has left North Canterbury schools feeling confused.
Associate Education Minister David Seymour announced last week the revised Ka Ora, Ka Ako/Healthy School Lunches programme would save $130 million.
It was revealed the new $3 lunches will apply to all schools and year levels already in the scheme, which left principals scratching their heads.
Earlier this year, the Government had indicated year 0 to 6 students would continue under the existing scheme, while year 7 to 13 students would be part of the new programme.
But Seymour said an agreement had been reached with the Government's preferred suppliers to offer the $3 lunches across all age groups.
The present budget is $8.68 per student.
‘‘The programme will deliver nutritious hot and cold meals, such as butter chicken curry, chicken katsu, lasagna, chicken pasta salad and wraps,’’ Seymour said.
‘‘All students in year 0 to 8 will receive the same sized meals (240 grams) and older students will receive larger lunches (at least 300g), which will include additional items such as fruit, yoghurt or muesli bars.’’
Te Kura o Tuahiwi principal Dot Singh feared the revised programme could leave its existing provider, Lazy Lunches, out in the cold.
‘‘I am still a bit confused,’’ she said.
‘‘We were told our year 0 to 6 student lunches would stay the same and they said if you’ve got cultural needs and allergy needs you could continue what you are doing.
‘‘But now they are saying we need to go through their providers and I’m unsure how healthy those lunches are going to be.’’
Lazy Lunches was established in 2021 to provide lunches to Te Kura o Tuahiwi, when the kura joined the scheme.
It has since extended the service to provide lunches to Kaiapoi Borough School and Karanga Mai Young Parents’ College, based at Kaiapoi High School.
Kaiapoi Borough School principal Hayden van Lent said he is grateful the lunches will continue to be provided for tamariki.
‘‘We appreciate the importance of ensuring our tamariki are well fed so they have the needed energy to learn at school and keep active throughout the day.
‘‘It is difficult to know what the new model will look like until it is in practice from next year.
‘‘In the interim we are going to explore both the internal and external options to see what will be best for our tamariki.’’
Te Kura o Hāpuku, near Kaikōura, is also part of the scheme, preparing lunches onsite for its 16 tamariki and six staff.
Principal Ripeka Tamepo said the kura was set to lose more than half of its funding.
‘‘We now will have to come up with creative ways to ensure we can continue to feed our tamariki nutritious meals.
‘‘Our tamariki need this as many whānau are struggling financially and this programme eradicated kai as a barrier to education as well as promoting whanautanga (connections), manaakitanga (care for others) and healthy food education.’’
Kaiapoi Borough School’s board of trustees, Karanga Mai, Te Kura o Hāpuku and Lazy Lunches have been contacted for comment.
■ LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.
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Waimakariri district plan faces more delays amid changing rules
By David Hill, Local Democracy Reporter
Changing Government legislation is causing headaches for council staff, as Waimakariri’s new District Plan is set to be delayed again.
Waimakariri District Council development planning manager Matt Bacon said he was relieved when the last of the public hearings ended last week.
But with final council reports due on December 13, staff will have just two working days to present the final District Plan on December 17. A district plan helps to control and manage the development of the district or city.
‘‘We are working through what it looks like and we will update the council at its meeting on December 3,’’ Bacon said.
‘‘But we will likely seek another extension from the environment minister and the Resource Management Act (RMA) minister.’’
The council first notified its draft District Plan in September 2021, but within months legislation was introduced with new medium density residential housing standards (MDRS).
‘‘We needed to call for further submissions and we had to create a separate hearing panel to consider the plan variations to allow for the MDRS,’’ Bacon said.
‘‘We have tried to merge the process as much as possible, as well as looking at re-zoning and incorporating other new legislation.’’
When the draft plan was first notified there was no National Policy Statement (NPS) for Indigenous Biodiversity, but an NPS was introduced - and then replaced.
The Natural and Built Environment Act came into being last year and then repealed, and then there is the NPS on Urban Development and the Greater Christchurch Spatial Plan.
The Government is now working on more RMA reforms and Environment Canterbury is working on the Canterbury Regional Policy Statement.
And then there is the Fast-Track Approvals Bill, which includes three proposed housing developments in Waimakariri - two of them outside of the future urban development areas identified in the Greater Christchurch Spatial Plan.
All three housing developments in the Bill have been included in submissions to the District Plan, including a proposed 850-home development at Ohoka, near Rangiora, which is also subject to an Environment Court appeal.
‘‘We haven’t seen the detail, so whether it is the same proposals, we don’t know, but they are different processes so we have to just keep doing what we are doing, until we are told otherwise,’’ Bacon said.
‘‘It might just be a timing thing, but we just don’t know.’’
Bacon said delaying the District Plan until new legislation is in place is not an option.
‘‘We are looking at what we can control and having a watching brief, and we will look at transitional timings because we don’t always have to immediately change planning documents when new legislation comes in.’’
Planning manager Wendy Harris said navigating changing Government legislation is a normal part of council planning work.
‘‘If we waited we wouldn’t do anything and we would go nowhere.’’
■ LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.
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