37603 (2025). Dr Lawrence Xu-Nan to the Associate Minister of Education

37603 (2025). Dr Lawrence Xu-Nan to the Associate Minister of Education: What prompted the July 2025 Request for Proposals for the 2026 provision of school lunches to contributing primary schools?

Hon David Seymour: The July 2025 Request for proposal (RFP) for the 2026 provision of school lunches to contributing primary schools was promoted by a Cabinet decision made on 30 September 2024. Cabinet agreed that contributing primary schools would move to the cost-efficient model from Term 1, 2026. To implement this decision, I was provided advice by the Ministry of Education on 12 June 2025, Ka Ora Ka Ako | Healthy School Lunches: 2026 procurement options. On 16 June 2025, the procurement of external supplier/s for contributing primary schools was agreed. In line with government procurement rules, an openly advertised procurement process such as the RFP is the default process for tenders of this value. This is also my response to written parliamentary questions 37638 and 37634 (2025).