Source: The Kaizen Group – Sir Ray Avery GNZM
OPINION PIECE – Sir Ray says “It was actually day two when David Seymour’s lunches arrived at schools one hour after lunchtime and principals described it as looking like dog food and they could not even give it away to food banks and it was dumped.”
The company who David Seymour awarded the $85 million School lunch programme contract to is the British-based multinational Compass Group, who lost one-third of their school contracts in the original school lunch programme due to poor quality in food and service.
Compass has been severely criticised for its catering supply in NZ hospitals.
Dr Kelly Garton, spokesperson for The Health Coalition Aotearoa (HCA), has significant concerns about the quality, nutritional standards and quality controls for the new school lunches programme.
“Cabinet has given a $85 million contract to a group led by a company that just months ago was forced to do a performance management plan due to poor quality and service,” said Dr Kelly Garton.
“Why should New Zealanders have confidence this model will deliver the nutrition and quality growing bodies and minds need?” Garton said.
Sir Ray Avery says he has faced a lot of critics on social media because he stated: “The Government doesn’t have any meaningful Governmental Nutritional Standards for School Lunches and this seemed to polarise New Zealanders some who endorsed the New School Lunch initiative and others though that this was the parents’ responsibility.
“Both sides of the political system seem to be focused on the process rather than outcomes,” said Sir Ray. “The real issue is what is the desired outcome? It’s trying to close the gap on equality by providing a nutritious meal (that gets eaten) by children who through no fault of their own don’t have the ‘luxury’ of packing one from home so they can focus at school and achieve better educational results and better long-term physical and mental health outcomes.
“Not $3 meals produced by a dodgy company with a terrible track record.”
David Seymour gave a $85-million-dollar contract to a company that day two “due to problems with their ovens were one hour late for lunchtime” and principals described it as $3 dog food and Seymour said “This is just program teething problems”.
Sir Ray is calling out Seymour for awarding the school lunch programme to a company that is well known for awful, sub-standard food in the hospital setting and with many many complaints from schools in the previous School lunch programme.
Sir Ray said “I can only presume his decision was based on price so Seymour could claim to have saved millions of dollars with respect to the previous School lunch programme costing $8 per serve but Seymour has wasted $85 million dollars because you can’t fix Compass quality and service problems and our kids will still go hungry because Seymour did not provide them something edible to eat.”
Sir Ray says, “Because our Tamariki are such a valuable asset for the future of New Zealand I think Seymour should resign because he has been negligent in appointing a company known for its poor performance with respect to the quality of the food it provides and any competent Minister would have done the necessary due diligence to ensure our Tamariki have the best possible start in life.”
