Hon David Seymour
Associate Minister of Education

Associate Education Minister David Seymour is inviting food manufacturers, producers, wholesalers, and distributors to register their interest in the new and improved Healthy School Lunches programme.

“The Healthy School Lunches programme delivers lunches to over 240,000 children. It is a great opportunity for enterprises in the food industry to be a part of one of the biggest food programmes in the country,” says Mr Seymour.

Earlier this year the re-designed Healthy School Lunches programme was announced. From Term 1 2025, healthy lunches will be delivered to the students who need the greatest support in a smarter way that reduces cost, as well as surplus food and waste.

“The next step in the process is for enterprises with existing food infrastructures across communities to register their interest and pitch for being part of a more efficient Healthy School Lunches programme.”

Registration of interest in the Healthy School Lunches programme will be open on the Government Electronic Tender Service (GETS) website from Monday 12 August 2024.

“Using economies of scale and working with experts in wholesale food production and distribution might seem like common sense, but both aspects were absent under the previous Government,” says Mr Seymour.

“The Ministry of Education and an expert advisory group consisting of commercial and not-for-profit experts in procurement, logistics and contracting, as well as child welfare and nutrition, have been working hard to realise this vision. We know that through improved practice we can deliver delicious lunches for the children for a lot less than what the previous Government spent on each meal.

“There has also been engagement with representatives from schools, kura, boards, and sector leaders.

“I acknowledge this is a very important project at this time due to the current cost of living and food insecurity which impacts the most vulnerable children.

“I am excited for the market, not just because of the commercial opportunity in this challenging economic environment but because it supports some of New Zealand’s most vulnerable children.”

Note: Budget 2024 is providing $478 million in funding for the Healthy School Lunches programme for the 2025 and 2026 school years. This includes funding for food for up to 10,000 two- to five-year-olds in need in early childhood centres, which is outside of this procurement process.

The full redesign of the programme for future years will combine the commercial experience, data and evidence gathered from this new provision model. 

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