Christchurch school to deliver own lunch programme after mouldy meal saga

A Christchurch school at the centre of a controversy over mouldy lunches will run its own programme from next year.

Haeata Community Campus has been granted an exemption under the Ministry of Education's Ka Ora, Ka Ako Healthy School Lunches programme after campaigning to ditch the centralised catering model.

The school has been critical of the scheme.

Principal Peggy Burrows and Associate Education Minister David Seymour engaged in a war of words after rotten lunches were served at the school last year.

A teacher noticed the mince and potato meals were covered in mould after they had been distributed to a number of children.

Burrows had earlier raised concerns over meals arriving frozen and an excess of food waste.

New Zealand Food Safety found there were no food safety risks following an investigation into the lunch provider over the mouldy meals.

Investigators said it was unlikely the external provider, the School Lunch Collective, had delivered old meals and the most plausible explanation was lunches meant to be served the previous week were accidentally mixed with fresh meals.

It recommended changes to tracing and reporting processes to prevent it from happening again.

The school maintained the mix-up was not at their end.

Haeata Community Campus board presiding member Kelly Gibson said moving away from the external provider was a victory for students, staff and the wider community.

"By bringing our lunch programme on site, we aren't just serving better, fresh meals, we are providing real vocational training for our senior hospitality students and ensuring our resources stay within our community," Gibson said.

The school will use its industrial kitchen facilities to prepare meals from Term 1 next year.

The programme will employ local kitchen staff and caterers to deliver fresh, high-quality, culturally-tailored meals.

The school said it would eliminate delivery issues associated with external supply chains and minimise food waste while ensuring students received nutritious meals.

Gibson said the model could serve as a framework for other schools with specialised facilities.