New Poll: Most Voters Think Parents Should Provide School Lunches

Tuesday, 1 April 2025, 8:33 pm
Article: RNZ

Anneke Smith, Political reporter

The majority of voters believe parents are most responsible for providing school lunches, according to the first RNZ-Reid Research poll.

The results, gathered between 21 and 27 March, come after a string of problems bedevilling the scheme - including late delivery, unappealing food, and even an exploding meal.

The government's revamp of the school lunch programme has received a lot of attention this term and featured as a topical question in this week's poll.

Voters were asked who they thought should be most responsible for providing school lunches.

Of the 1000 people polled, 61.5 percent said parents, 32.4 percent said the government via a school lunch programme, 2.5 percent said other and 3.6 percent said they did not know.

Support for parents was strongest among National and ACT voters followed by NZ First and then Labour.

Green and Te Pāti Māori supporters were more likely to say school lunches should be provided by the government.

Those on the lowest-incomes were more likely to name parents as being the most responsible, while those with the highest were more likely to name the government.

Political parties' views

National leader Christopher Luxon said parents should be providing school lunches, with the government's programme serving as a back stop for hungry kids.

"We'll continue to provide a free school lunch programme, it's important, but for parents who can afford it, they should be providing their own lunches."

Labour leader Chris Hipkins agreed parents were most responsible, but said that was not a reason to scrap the lunch programme or to run it into the ground.

"We established the school lunch programme targeting the group of kids for whom it was most difficult for parents to do that and where the kids were most likely to show up without a lunch, but most families will still regard that as a parents' responsibility."

ACT leader David Seymour - and the minister responsible for the lunch programme - said his view had always been that the duty fell on parents.

"If people bring children into the world they have a set of moral obligations to that child and when people don't fulfill those moral obligations we are all worse off, particularly innocent children."

In contrast, Greens' co-leader Marama Davidson said providing school lunches was the government's responsibility and believed the initiative should be universal.

"What we are hearing is how important it is for Aotearoa to make sure all of our tamariki are fed and that having school lunches, when they are locally prepared and provided, brings community together and makes sure that children are looked after, also for their education."

Te Pāti Māori co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer said the government should fund a school lunch programme that was run by schools and their communities.

"I absolutely support local solutions. I think they're more cost effective, there's a multiplier effect within those communities and schools, they engage more people into those schools and communities and there's an overarching community care, not just for the food but for the children. That's an ideal model."

This poll of 1000 people was conducted by Reid Research, using quota sampling and weighting to ensure representative cross section by age, gender and geography. The poll was conducted through online interviews between 21-27 March 2025 and has a maximum margin of error of +/- 3.1% at a 95% confidence level. The report is available here.

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