10595 (2025). Dr Lawrence Xu-Nan to the Associate Minister of Education

10595 (2025). Dr Lawrence Xu-Nan to the Associate Minister of Education: Can the Minister confirm that the Ka Ora, Ka Ako lunches being sourced from Australia meet the current programme's nutritional standards; if so, how has this been ensured?

Hon David Seymour: I am advised by the Ministry of Education (the Ministry) that every meal is expected to meet the nutritional standards which include a balance of protein, vegetables and grains or starchy vegetables. For more information, see: https://kaorakaako.education.govt.nz/nutrition-standards The School Lunch Collective introduced the flexi-menu in February to balance manufacturing shortfalls with delivering a variety of meals. When a meal alone does not meet the nutritional standards, the Ministry expects that additional food items such as fruit or vegetables will be provided with the meal so the whole lunch meets the required standards. To make sure 125,000 children could get lunch each day, third party food manufacturers were contacted to help with supply meals for the flexi-menu to allow Libelle’s manufacturing facility time to catch up and meet the meal production forecast. Meals from some of these third-party manufacturers, including Patties from Australia are no longer being used in the programme and will not appear on the flexi-menu in future.