A new report from New Zealand's Audit Office has found that just over half of the meals provided through the Government's free school lunch programme met nutritional standards in 2025, while as many as 20,000 lunches are being returned uneaten each day.
According to a report by Stuff, the review examined the coalition government's revised school lunch programme, which was introduced to reduce costs while continuing to provide meals to the same number of students. The programme has faced criticism since its rollout over reports of delayed deliveries, meal quality concerns and food safety issues.
The Audit Office found that although the programme aimed to lower costs, reduce waste and maintain nutritional quality, monitoring systems for waste, surplus meals and nutrition were inadequate.
According to the report, the number of unopened meals being returned has exceeded the programme's target. During the 2025 school year, surplus meals averaged 10.4% of deliveries. The Audit Office said that figure has since risen to 17% in 2026 for the School Lunch Collective, which delivers around 115,000 lunches daily, equating to nearly 20,000 uneaten meals each day, Stuff has reported.
Responding to the findings, Andrea Williams, acting group general manager at the Ministry of Education, said the Ministry has been tracking surplus meals every week since the programme began.
“This weekly information is showing us where surplus is highest and where changes are needed. We are using it to reduce surplus by adjusting orders and working with schools on different processes at lunchtime to improve uptake and better match demand,” she said, as quoted by Stuff.
“New contracts set limits on surplus and hold suppliers to account. If they do not meet these standards, they must fix the issue and may face closer monitoring or financial penalties,” Stuff has quoted.
The report also raised concerns about food and packaging waste, noting there is no contractual target for reducing waste despite large quantities being discarded.
Williams acknowledged improvements were needed.
“We are working with the supplier and schools to reduce it and to improve how it is recorded, including separating school lunch waste from other school waste,” she said, as quoted by Stuff.
She added that the Ministry would introduce regular food waste measurements each term to improve monitoring.
On nutritional quality, the Audit Office found that only 50.5% of sampled meals complied with required nutrition standards in 2025. The School Lunch Collective disputed those findings, saying its own assessments showed higher compliance later in the year.
Williams said the Ministry expected all providers to meet the required standards.
“Where meals are not meeting the standards, providers are required to make changes,” she said, as quoted by Stuff.
“In recent supplier reviews, they told us our testing method was not fit-for-purpose, and we listened. Next term we will implement an update to our assessment approach to provide more accurate results and improve the programme,” Stuff has quoted.
Associate Education Minister David Seymour defended the programme, highlighting the financial savings achieved under the new model.
“By making the programme more efficient I have saved the taxpayer $360m and counting. The Auditor General should be happy about this outcome. Reading the report, it feels like The Auditor General would be happy if we spent another $360m to get the same outcome, so long as we followed his preferred process,” he said, Stuff has quoted.
Seymour also criticised the Audit Office's assessment.
“More generally, the report acts as a rear-view mirror, telling us what we already knew. There were some teething issues at the start of the programme, and they were addressed, as quoted by Stuff.
“With any contract delivering a quarter of a million meals to a thousand schools, there will be the need for constant management, which we provide,” he said, Stuff has quoted.