School lunches plagued with issues as Luxon continues to defend Seymour
Today, futher reports on “an array of issues” with school lunches as the “collective nightmare” for schools continues.
An investigation is underway from the Ministries of Primary Industries after melted plastic was consumed by kids in Friday’s school lunches - one of four MPI inquiries.
Remember - Seymour’s School Lunches has had more complaints in about a week than the last program’s 3 years combined.
Other MPI investigations include labelling mistakes and omissions that schools say put kids with allergies at risk.
The problem with all of this is not only the unacceptable situation of our government setting up our kids with such a poor quality provider that there is melted plastic in their food, it’s also the preservatives laden in the food, the lack of nutrition, and it’s all taking an exorbitant amount of time and focus from schools, teachers, principals, and parents.
Finally, it sends a negative message to school children, who should feel valued and know that their worth matters in our society. Dr Bex nailed it this morning with an article highlighting the imbalances.
The other issue is of course the 50-70+% waste rates according to different reports.
This is an obscene dereliction of duty in terms of our money and resources.
Mike Hoskings however, was doing his best manifestation of certain Kiwi billionaires (Nick Mowbray comes to mind) - this morning calling anyone who complained about school lunches ‘whiners, moaners and bitching [Kiwis]’..
Hoskings set it up with a back hand serve from the start:
Do we actually have a problem here or is this a pile on from the unions, the teachers and the media to make David Seymour look bad?
Luxon admitted there were some issues, but defended Seymour valiantly, and ever eager to please Hoskings, added a message to concerned parents”
"If you are unhappy with it, for God's sake, go make a Marmite sandwich and put an apple in a bag just like you and I had."
That satisfied Hoskings - and their job to paint people who raise legitimate concerns with school lunchers as ‘whinging, whining and bitching’ was complete.
Where’s the Minister of Education?
As I wrote last week, Stanford cannot escape responsibility here.
She is the Minister of Education.
Today RNZ reports she is seeking a meeting with David Seymour on the school lunches.
And as Dr Bex reports, Labour’s Carmel Sepuloni said last week,
"He's the one that turned this programme upside down. It was working really well prior to David Seymour's intervention, but I will put on the record too that the primary Minister of Education is Erica Stanford, she needs to stand up, take over and fix this mess because clearly David Seymour is not capable of doing so."
Precisely - Stanford is the Minister of Education and if her weak boss won’t pull him up on it, she should.
As one of the contenders for the National Party leadership when Luxon gets rolled, I think Stanford will at least try too.
Chris Hipkins’ Strong Statement on School Lunches
From a short form RNZ update
Labour has described the coalition's new school lunch programme as disgusting - and says the prime minister is "out of touch with those in poverty".
It comes after a series of problems with the scheme - with reports of food turning up late, burnt or unsealed.
Christopher Luxon conceded some lunches were not up to scratch - but said critics could give their child a Marmite sandwich and an apple.
The comment went down poorly with Labour MPs - including leader Chris Hipkins.
Hipkins says it is time to go back to the previous lunch programme which worked.
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