12555 (2025). Hon Willow-Jean Prime to the Associate Minister of Education

12555 (2025). Hon Willow-Jean Prime to the Associate Minister of Education: What was the average cost per school lunch, if any, during the week of March 10th 2025?

Hon David Seymour: The cost the Ministry of Education pays for meals has not changed this term The School Lunch Collective are paid $3 per student for meals delivered to Secondary, Intermediate, Full primary (0-8 years) and Composite (0-15 years) schools. An additional 0.84 cents is provided for two additional food items served with the main meal to year 9 + students under this model. Schools who currently make their own lunches (internal model) or receive lunches from an iwi or hapū partner (iwi/hapū model) are funded at $4 per student, per lunch. Contributing Primary Schools (0-6 years), Teen Parent Units and Specialist Schools receive the same funding as they did in 2024. 2025 per student rate for external and iwi/hapū providers and internal model schools: Year 0-3 $5.56 - $5.97 Year 4-8 $6.62 - $6.99 Year 9+ $8.29 - $8.90 The number of students in the programme for each model is available here: Ka Ora, Ka Ako | Healthy School Lunches: information for schools - Ministry of Education