Greens Pledge to Restore and Expand School Lunch Programme

The Green Party says it will restore the original Ka Ora, Ka Ako school lunch programme and extend it to roughly 400 more schools if it is part of the next government, with the cost funded permanently through a wealth tax.

Co-leader Marama Davidson said the expansion would mean 150,000 more children get a lunch every day. The party would open the programme to schools with an Equity Index above 450, and restore per-lunch funding to $6.50, compared to the current average cost of $3.58 per meal across all suppliers. (RNZ)

The Equity Index is the measure the Ministry of Education uses to allocate extra funding to schools based on the socio-economic disadvantage of their students. A threshold of 450 means the Greens are targeting schools with higher levels of disadvantage rather than offering lunches to every school in the country.

The policy, announced on 19 August 2026, would cost $472 million in 2027/28, rising to $602 million in 2030/31, according to Green Party estimates.

Davidson said the policy would go back to providing lunches through schools or local providers. She said cutting funding and removing contracts from local providers had cost hundreds of local jobs, left half of meals failing minimum nutritional standards, and increased food waste. The Greens estimate restoring local provision would bring back up to 2,000 jobs, with a further 1,900 created through the expansion. The party has said it would pay for the programme through a wealth tax, which it describes as a fairer tax system. (Green Party)

The current government restructured the school lunch programme, renaming it Healthy School Lunches in October, to reduce costs. Associate Education Minister David Seymour said in May that on-time delivery had been running at almost 100 percent every day and complaints had fallen by more than 92 percent. Seymour said $122 million would be saved in 2027 by continuing the programme as it is, compared to what it would cost under the old model.

The redesigned programme had early problems, including poor meal quality and the liquidation of Auckland-based provider Libelle Group. In this year's Budget, the government extended the programme for another year, with Seymour indicating further changes were likely for 2028 and beyond.

An Auditor-General report found the current model was saving money compared to the previous government's approach, but its performance was not being properly monitored or tracked.

The broader context here is a clear dividing line between the two approaches. The government has focused on cutting costs and using centralised supply, pointing to delivery reliability and fiscal savings. The Greens argue those savings have come at the expense of nutritional quality, local employment, and food waste, and that spending more per meal through local providers would deliver better outcomes across all three.

For parties negotiating after the election, the gap between a $3.58 average cost per meal and a restored $6.50 per lunch is the central fiscal tension, alongside the question of whether the programme should stay under its current centralised structure or go back to local and school-based provision.

The Auditor-General's finding on monitoring gaps cuts across both positions. It suggests that whatever model is in place after the election, performance measurement will need attention, because the current system is not producing the data needed to properly track whether the programme is meeting its nutritional and delivery goals.

The Greens' costing figures will face scrutiny against Treasury baseline estimates during the campaign. The party's plan to fund the expansion through a wealth tax also means the school lunch programme will be drawn into the broader tax-and-spend debate that usually defines election-year fiscal positioning.