10151 (2025). Dr Lawrence Xu-Nan to the Associate Minister of Education

10151 (2025). Dr Lawrence Xu-Nan to the Associate Minister of Education: What confirmation, if any, did the Associate Minister receive to justify the $3 per meal, per student funding for external providers of the Ka Ora, Ka Ako programme as sustainable?

Hon David Seymour: The Registration of Interest released by the Ministry invited responses from suppliers who were able to meet the Ministry’s requirements, including the $3 per lunch capped price. The ROI response from School Lunch Collective stated it could meet this capped price. This was confirmed during negotiations and the $3 per meal fixed price is reflected in the contract the Ministry signed with Compass Group NZ Ltd, as lead for the School Lunch Collective. The procurement process found this was sustainable by embracing commercial expertise from a large nationwide supplier, supply chain efficiencies and maximising the government buying power. I am advised by the Ministry of Education that the Service Agreement with the School Lunch Collective is for a unit cost per meal per student of $3. There is a separate service agreement for $0.84 to provide two additional food items for Year 9+ students bring the 240g meal up to the 300g as per the nutritional standards. I received feedback from the Expert Advisory Group that the existing internal model (lunches prepared at the school) and the iwi/hapū model (lunches are prepared either on site or at an offsite location) are unlikely to meet the $3 unit price because they are unable to achieve the same economies of scale to reduce the per unit labour costs. The paper Cabinet approved on 30 September 2024 provided these models with additional support funding of up to $1 per lunch, bringing their unit costs up to around $4. The Cabinet paper also stated any cost efficiencies would be used to cover additional costs of meals to support schools and students in the programme.