Anecdotally, some schools say yes, absolutely.
They have seen levels of concentration improve, they have seen children able to settle into their class, that they are happier, that they are healthier. That's anecdotally.
Treasury, who have crunched the numbers, says no, $325 million a year is not value for money.
A report into the lunches in schools scheme, which launched four years ago, shows there's been no impact on school attendance - that's what I was really hoping for.
For Māori learners there has not been better levels of concentration in class. Anecdotally, we might have heard that some teachers have seen improvements, but we've also heard anecdotally of teachers taking lunches home so they don't go to waste.
We’ve heard of lunches being donated to food banks and at least one pig farmer in the Waikato, building up a glossy, plump drift of pigs thanks to the drums of discarded school lunches that would otherwise have gone to the tip.
I am all for feeding hungry children. Every single time the six-year-old in my house says I'm hungry and I can feed him, I do not take it for granted, nor do his parents.
They need food for their brains and their muscles to grow and if they're not getting it at home, all for them getting it at school.
But when we’re spending more than half of Pharmac’s budget just so some kids don't feel whakamā or shame, so that a farmer's pigs can grow healthy, and we get the best bacon ever - there's got to be a better way of doing this. There really does.
Jan Tinetti is quite wrong when she says any money spent on children is money well spent.
Quite clearly, quod erat demonstrandum, it is not.
Kerre McIvor, is a journalist, radio presenter, author and columnist. Currently hosts the Kerre Woodham mornings show on Newstalk ZB where this article was sourced
For Māori learners there has not been better levels of concentration in class. Anecdotally, we might have heard that some teachers have seen improvements, but we've also heard anecdotally of teachers taking lunches home so they don't go to waste.
We’ve heard of lunches being donated to food banks and at least one pig farmer in the Waikato, building up a glossy, plump drift of pigs thanks to the drums of discarded school lunches that would otherwise have gone to the tip.
I am all for feeding hungry children. Every single time the six-year-old in my house says I'm hungry and I can feed him, I do not take it for granted, nor do his parents.
They need food for their brains and their muscles to grow and if they're not getting it at home, all for them getting it at school.
But when we’re spending more than half of Pharmac’s budget just so some kids don't feel whakamā or shame, so that a farmer's pigs can grow healthy, and we get the best bacon ever - there's got to be a better way of doing this. There really does.
Jan Tinetti is quite wrong when she says any money spent on children is money well spent.
Quite clearly, quod erat demonstrandum, it is not.
Kerre McIvor, is a journalist, radio presenter, author and columnist. Currently hosts the Kerre Woodham mornings show on Newstalk ZB where this article was sourced
4 comments:
When i went to school we got plain food which is what kids like. Not rice rolls with avacado dressing and mingbean salad. Kids don't like that. We had jam sandwiches or a yoghurt, packet of raisons, a small pack of chips or a slice of mums home made fudge cake and an apple. We drank water from the many drinking fountains at school. It is about neglect, not lack of money. Plus the lunches they offer are too fancy for kids.
Apparently there are guidelines around the free lunches:that they are to be healthy and fresh.For a few years I received left -overs from a preschool for a couple of pigs. I was shocked to see the high content of sugary high carbohydrate food which I screened out since I didn't even want my pigs eating it. The waste was dreadful with one bite only,taken out of an apple then discarded.
It comes down to the prevailing ideologies in our homes and schools that children can determine what they learn, eat, do and wear entirely themselves. They are not to be corrected nor 'forced'.
This is why we have failure in all areas of child management. Lack of discipline and self control, obesity and under achievement to mention a few.
Before this ideology took hold children were told to eat what was put in front of them . Also there wasn't the ubiquity of nutrition poor junk food which is also addictive.
There are doctorate studies on a myriad obscure topics. But do we really know what the so called disadvantaged eat or not? When I observe the gross lumps shambling to the local college I find it hard to believe food is lacking. They did not all start to feed at 13. Many better off parents must be wary of food hand prpared by low skill labour with unknown standards of food and personal hygiene.
School lunches, like insulation, heat pumps, asbestos, scaffolding, meth, property inspections, recycling is immedaitely seized upon by opportunists as scope for a lucrative cosy industry.
I wonder how much of that $325 million translates into boosted profits for the alcohol, tobacco and illegal drug industries. After all, that's 325 million the parents don't have to spend on food for their progeny.
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