Vegetables are a major component of the meals that will be served to more than 240,000 students as part of Ka Ora, Ka Ako - the healthy school lunches programme.
Sean Teddy, Hautū (Leader) Operations and Integration at the Ministry of Education says the meals delivered from the School Lunch Collective meet the same nutritional standards the programme has always done. These standards are based on Ministry of Health guidance. Every meal will include vegetables or salad ingredients.
"We’re doing what a lot of parents do when they cook for their children at home - we’ll include vegetables, but they won’t always be visible. Schools have told us that that hiding the carrots, parsnip, pumpkin, spinach, cauliflower and other vegetables in the sauces works well for children," Mr Teddy says.
Schools say the hot meals that will be provided are popular with children and the recipes selected are the ones they know.
Fruit and vegetable suppliers, such as Wattie’s and Fresh Connection will provide ingredients to the School Lunch Collective.
Compared to what they get now, students in Year 0 to 3 will receive more to eat. All students will receive the same size meals - around 240g.
"For students in Year 9 and above, two supplementary items will be served with each meal, such as baking that contains vegetables - chocolate brownie made with kumara and pumpkin is expected to be a popular choice - along with fresh fruit, or fruit yoghurt," Mr Teddy says.
"We will continue to support schools making lunches for their students to meet the required meal sizes and nutritional standards.
"We’ll work closely with the School Lunch Collective to deliver high-quality meals and will monitor, measure, and respond to any requests for changes."
