School lunches in New Zealand
Summary
Free school meals have been provided to low-income students in New Zealand through the Ka Ora, Ka Ako programme since 2020. In 2023, the Sixth National Government Of New Zealand, a coalition of the conservative National Party, Act Party and New Zealand First Party, came to government, ushering in funding cuts to the program. The changes to the program faced numerous issues. The program faced additional controversy when the Prime Minister made a comment criticised as insensitive and lacking appreciation of the state of poverty in some parts of the country. On 1 March, the Prime Minister indicated that the program was experiencing "teething issues" but reiterating his confidence in the relevant Minister to address them. In October 2025, the Government dropped the programme's Māori name but retained its English name.
Originally created by Panamitsu
3/14/2025, 3:08:12 AM
Modified
5/25/2026, 9:33:04 PM
Recent revisions
/* 2026 revamp */ updated
updated introd
added dropping of Maori name
/* December 2025 Haeata food poisoning incident */ Added update on food poisoning incident
/* December 2025 Haatea Campus food poisoning incident */ fixed red links and typo
Updated Haatea Campus food poisoning incident
/* Primary schools */ fixed archive date
Added section on primary schools
/* School Lunch Collective */ replaced semi-colon with full stop
/* School Lunch Collective */ Added Luxon's marmite remarks from [[Christopher Luxon]] article. See talk page for attribution.
/* Libelle Group in liquidation */ New heading
/* Libelle Group */ Expand
/* Quality and delivery issues */ New headings
/* Cuts in the programme */ New heading
/* Sixth National Government */ New heading
/* Sixth National Government */ Clarification
/* Sixth Labour Government */ Add annual cost
I gave information on the sixth National Government
added [[Category:2025 in New Zealand politics]] using [[WP:HC|HotCat]]