Radio NZ, and other media, failed to ask any questions at all, as it fit the narrative that the revised school lunch programme was bad that the left love. They didn’t ask:
- As many schools receive lunches from the same distributor, how is it possible that only one school received the bad lunches?
- As this particular school principal has appeared in the media with almost a dozen complaints about school lunches, why does her school seem to be so disproportionately affected by issues?
- As the principal had recently asked for an ‘exemption’ from the programme, should this claim be assessed in light of this?
- Is it possible that the meals were leftover at the school and then served?
“We have considered all possible causes.
“We think it is more than likely that the affected meals at the school had been delivered the previous Thursday, remained at the school without refrigeration, and then were accidentally re-served to students alongside fresh meals delivered on Monday. This would explain the deterioration of the meals.”
School Lunch Collective spokesperson Paul Harvey said the NZFA finding “aligns with our internal checks and with what our teams observed on the day”.
He said nine Cambro [food storage] boxes of the savoury mince and potatoes meal were delivered to Haeata Community Campus on Thursday, but records showed only eight were returned.
So it seems the school stored the meals without refrigeration for three days, served them up on Monday, and blamed Compass for their incompetence in potentially poisoning their own students. The principal did multiple media interviews saying it was the fault of Compass, rather than actually investigating what happened before blaming Compass.
I’m not sure who comes out of this looking worse – the school principal, or the media for failing to be at all sceptical of her claims.
This is not the first time it has happened. A few months ago 1 News reported the claim that a fly somehow survived being cooked in an oven and being transported for hours in a heat-contained container. As I noted they reported a literal fourth hand rumour as news.
Did they learn anything from that? No.
David Farrar runs Curia Market Research, a specialist opinion polling and research agency, and the popular Kiwiblog where this article was sourced. He previously worked in the Parliament for eight years, serving two National Party Prime Ministers and three Opposition Leaders
9 comments:
A Murphy's Law fits this quite well: The fault will never be placed if more than one person is involved!
Curioser and curioser. There was an RNZ interview with a remarkably sceptical rep of the supplier. He observed that the principal prone to grandstand or words to that effect. A pity the whole business of scool lunches was adopted.It places parents wary of food prepared by others with their various standards of hygeine but it awkward for their children to depart. The group to whom it was aimed seldom appear underfed.
This school principal seems to be a pathetic person.
Goldsmith , as Broadcasting Minister, made long -awaited changes to the Boards of NZ on Air and NZME. Has this improved the quality of these services? If not, why not?
We hear that Goldsmith (Broadcasting Minister) has made changes to the Boards of RNZ and NZME. Any impact felt to reform this rotten sector?
The truth will not change anyone's opinion .
David, the real problem here is the far left. The narrative of this govt serving up bad meals to kids suits them much better than it being the schools fault. The far left nutters are still probably angry that puberty blockers are also not being served to kids.
As the saying goes, if you want to piss of a conservative, lie to them. If you want to piss off the left, tell them the truth. :)
The problem is not the "far left".
The problem is that New Zealand has this type of thing in positions responsible for educating children.
God defend New Zealand!
It's not a school's job to serve lunches.
Always ends in a visit from the caretaker with sawdust.
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