Officials canceled a multi-million dollar school lunch policy and will now begin to regularly count the number of taxpayer-funded leftovers.

Recently, Thing revealed that thousands of lunches in the Ka Ora, Ka Ako program were not consumed in schools every week, and the government was not counting the numbers.

In Hamilton alone, hundreds of packed lunches have been sent intact to food shelters for the community to collect every day.

Opposition MPs called the program’s lack of rigor “irresponsible”, but Education Minister Chris Hipkins said it would be “nanny” to ask schools to monitor uneaten meals .

But in a turnaround, schools will now count the average daily number of excess lunches and report it to the education ministry.

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In a response to the Official Information Act to Thing on May 28, Assistant Secretary for Sector Empowerment and Support Katrina Casey said there was “no obligation” to count lunches not consumed on a daily or weekly basis due to the “burden. administrative “on schools, and expectations of the remaining lunches will decrease as the program continues.

But just four days later, schools were starting to provide regular and detailed information on lunches, including an average number of excess lunches per day, Casey said in a written response to questions.

The schools reported the leftover meals and their destination to the ministry at the end of the year.

“We added additional questions to our recording, including nutrition, excess lunches, absorption, supplier relationships and classroom impact. “

“The conversations are qualitative and all the data we collect is ad hoc. “

Casey did not respond directly to questions about whether counting was mandatory for all schools in the program, or what prompted the change.

The program has received $ 264.9 million in government funding to date, of which $ 1.5 million has been used to monitor and evaluate the program.

“Ka Ora, Ka Ako is a new program that is being implemented on a large scale and at a steady pace.

“We learn as we go and refine and strengthen our systems as the program unfolds. “

But National Education spokesman Paul Goldsmith said counting uneaten lunches was “baseline information” that should have been in place from the start.

“It’s a pretty expensive program, you would expect that when you start something substantial like this you should have the systems in place to measure lunch surpluses and waste.

“There are a lot of New Zealanders who can understand the need for the program, but they don’t like to see the waste.”

It should be mandatory for each school in the program to count the average number of leftover meals, Goldsmith said.

David Seymour of Act said Thing he believed that sustained criticism and reporting on the issue had prompted the policy change.

“At least the department can now say it measures what it manages.”

It was vital that officials now use the data to ensure the program becomes more effective, he said.

“If they don’t do anything about the information they receive, it’s almost worse than not knowing.”

Seymour said he was still concerned about the program, after a written parliamentary question revealed that 10% of school lunches were not consumed at 60 schools in Bay of Plenty / Waiariki, Hawke’s Bay / Tairāwhiti and Otago / Southland in the first quarter of 2021.

It was “extremely worrying” and required the government to carefully investigate what was going on, he said.

A spokesperson for Education Minister Chris Hipkins said the Ka Ora, Ka Ako program continues to “evolve and be refined”, as one would expect with a relatively new initiative.

The minister had not told officials to change policy and start counting excess lunches, another spokesperson said.

Hipkins said the program “is making a huge difference in many communities.”

“Where there are surplus lunches, they are swallowed up by hungry students, their families or those in need in the community.”

“ACT would rather see children go hungry than see a single piece of food go to waste.”