New Zealand school lunches under fire as UNESCO demands better nutrition globally

As UNESCO calls for attention to better-quality school meals, experts in Aotearoa, New Zealand, have pointed out that local government-funded school lunches are falling short on nutrition and quality standards.

They emphasize that the School Lunch Collective’s (SLC) meals, which are delivered to 51% of students in the Ka Ora, Ka Ako Healthy School Lunches Programme, are of “low quality, mislabeled, inappropriate for special diets, missed deliveries, and overheated.” 

Furthermore, none of the 13 SLC meals met the Ministry of Education’s obligatory nutrition standards, the National Nutrient Reference Values, or international energy benchmarks. Overall, they supplied less than 30% of daily energy needs and half the energy anticipated for a school lunch.

Commenting on the quality of global school meals, Audrey Azoulay, the director-general of UNESCO, says: “We need to go further and look at what is on their plates. The focus should be on balanced meals made with fresh produce and teaching children good eating habits to ensure they grow healthy. It’s a major issue for health and education.”

Breach of contract 

The researchers state that in October 2024, budget cuts to Ka Ora and Ka Ako led to the formation of the SLC consortium, which includes Compass Group NZ, Gilmours, and Libelle Group. The organization was contracted to provide lunch to 124,941 students. The rest of the students were fed by school, local, or iwi/hapu providers.

The Ministry of Education’s Ka Ora, Ka Ako Healthy School Lunches Programme sets minimum cooked weights for all meals and reviews nutrition performance monthly. However, researchers found the SLC only published limited nutrition information for meals and snacks on its website, making them “insufficient” to be assessed against standards.

They evaluated only 13 out of 53 nutrition standards-compliant meal components, including snacks for years 9+. The others had insufficient information on recipe ingredients. None of the SLC lunches were found to meet nutrition standards for all age groups. 

The researchers point out that meals must adhere to the 2022 nutrition standards created for the program under the Official Information Act on the SCL. “The SLC has failed to fully disclose sufficient information to assess compliance of all meals despite their website stating, ‘transparency is at the heart of what we do.’”

“As a taxpayer-funded program, we believe there should be sufficient published information on the ingredients to determine if the lunches meet the Ka Ora Ka Ako Nutrition Standards. From the meals published with sufficient information, our analysis shows a lack of compliance.”

None of the 13 SLC meals met the Ministry of Education’s obligatory nutrition standards, the National Nutrient Reference Values, or international energy benchmarks.They urge transparency in meal content, increased energy content, and urgent review of compliance with nutrition standards across all contractual obligations.

Improvements in school lunches

A new UNESCO study found that in 2024, 47% of pupils worldwide benefited from school meals. It finds that school meals drive enrolment rates by 9% and attendance by 8% while improving study results.

This was not the case in 2022 when nutritionists were not involved in designing nearly a third (27%) of global school meals. Laws, standards, or guidelines on food and beverages (F&B) were only present in 93 of the 187 countries evaluated. Of the 93, 65% had standards on the sale of F&B in school cafeterias, shops, and vending machines.

UNESCO believes the lack of standards has led to more than doubling the rate of obesity among school-age children since 1990.

In 2024, 47% of pupils worldwide benefited from school meals, according to a UNESCO study in 2023.“Schools must be a place where healthy habits are cultivated, not undermined. Eating locally produced, fresh school meals delivered by informed school nutritionists is part of a child’s education. It is an active lesson that will drive their relationship with food and empower them to make informed food choices in the future that are good for their health and the planet,” comments Daniel Humm, UNESCO’s goodwill ambassador for Food Education and a three-Michelin-starred chef.

Fresh and low-processed foods

UNESCO’s report spotlights the value of fresh and minimally processed foods. It encourages schools to prepare meals made with local produce to reduce sugary and ultra-processed foods.

It highlights Brazil’s national school feeding program’s success, which recently introduced ultra-processed product restrictions.

China has taken steps to reform nutritional initiatives, including introducing vegetables, milk, and eggs into rural schools, which has helped boost school attendance.

The report also reveals that Nigeria’s 2014-launched Home-Grown School Feeding Programme increased the primary school enrolment rate by 20%. Meanwhile, India introduced fortified organic pearl millet, rich in iron, into school meals in Maharashtra, improving adolescents’ attention span and memory. 

India’s Public Distribution System has made headway in combating child stunting, boosting household income, and curbing the effects of climate shocks. Nutrition Insight recently spoke to an expert on the program’s benefits to learn lessons about food transfers and preventing malnutrition.

Meanwhile, Mexico recently banned school junk food to tackle the obesity crisis and instead promotes healthy alternatives, such as regional and seasonal plants without added sugar or salt.

The Global Child Nutrition Foundation also found that global school meal programs fed 407 million children in 2022, supported small-scale farmers, created jobs, and promoted sustainable food systems. 

UNESCO is now developing tools for governments and education professionals to integrate health and nutrition strategies, including a manual and training program. This will support the Coalition for School Meals, of which UNESCO is a member.