Te Pāti Māori is appalled by the government’s blatant mishandling of the school lunch programme. David Seymour’s ‘cost-saving’ measures have left tamariki across Aotearoa with unidentifiable meals, causing distress and outrage among parents and communities alike.
“What’s the difference between providing inedible food, and providing no food at all?” Said Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Education Tākuta Ferris.
“Many tamariki rely on these meals as their only nourishment of the day, it is disgraceful that the government has put the wellbeing of their books over the wellbeing of our mokopuna.
“David Seymour may as well have cut the program entirely instead of insulting our tamariki with this slop.
“You do not sweep this kind of failure under the rug by blaming “teething problems.” This should have been thoroughly planned and tested before it was rolled out to ensure it worked for all tamariki. Instead, we have a system that has failed them, and now, it seems, no one wants to take responsibility.
“For every serious issue in this country, the government’s only solution has been to hand off their responsibility to someone else.
“We don’t have enough housing? Get overseas investors to sort it out. Our education system is failing? Charter schools will save us.
“School lunches are ‘too expensive’? Let’s get the cheapest contractor we can find and hope our kids don’t get food poisoning.
“It’s time for these Ministers to stop passing the buck. They must apologise- publicly and without delay- to all the tamariki, mātua, and kura affected by this. They must own their mistakes and fix the system, because right now, it is failing the very people it was supposed to help”, said Ferris.
I don’t expect the government to do anything. Remember, these are politicians. Seymour wanted to scrap the whole school lunches programme and by serving slops he will be hoping schools opt out altogether. His supporters believe families should feed their own children and if they don’t its not the tax payers job to do so. Luxon and Peters will both be happy and hoping school lunches becomes a huge disaster for Act.
The well- being of tamariki is the last thing on the minds of these men.
What I am amazed at is the ignorance around blaming Mr Seymour for the gravey train that Labour put in place for so many organizations to take advantage of. Some of the schools have been very well serviced as mentioned in this article, but others are simply obviously in it for the money. What everyone is missing the point of, is that no accountability is being DEMANDED from the suppliers that are serving this “slop”!!! It’s not Mr Seymour flying around in his cape serving every single school in New Zealand that is participating in the scheme willingly, it’s up to the staff and the school board to make sure that the contractor is up to the task before signing off on the contract. And if the standard slips drastically, go through the right channels to get it corrected.
I don’t expect the government to do anything. Remember, these are politicians. Seymour wanted to scrap the whole school lunches programme and by serving slops he will be hoping schools opt out altogether. His supporters believe families should feed their own children and if they don’t its not the tax payers job to do so. Luxon and Peters will both be happy and hoping school lunches becomes a huge disaster for Act.
The well- being of tamariki is the last thing on the minds of these men.
Seymour’s plan is working perfectly.
He’ll eventually be able to scrap the whole idea of school lunches.
Everyone will be so annoyed by then, they’ll roll over and say, ‘Yeah, may as well. it’s not as good as they said it would be’.
Job done.
As you say, they want to leave everything up to individuals to fix for themselves. They back off from everything that was brought in for the common good.
Resistance is the only way to deal with bullies and conmen.
What concerns me most is this…
“Many tamariki rely on these meals as their only nourishment of the day, it is disgraceful that the government has put the wellbeing of their books over the wellbeing of our mokopuna.”
WHAT! It is unbelievable that there are children who get no other food than school lunches. Where are their parents? Do they starve too?
There is nobody in this country who needs to starve, who couldn’t apply for a food grant, or some assistance.
May i add that if the kids were actually starving, they would eat anything! They’d be scavenging whatever they could, begging for food, just to eat. Are they? No. They’re refusing food for whatever reason, most likely because they are spoilt.
So, Mr TPM Ferris, stop trying to snag headlines and get off your backside to help your tamariki by educating their parents on healthy life skills. Put the responsibility back on the parents. Scrap school lunches altogether, if none of the tamariki are eating it… which I don’t believe is the case. I bet there are many parents and children who are grateful for the program, and do eat the food provided.
Apologies to Joy for hijacking your comment.
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