The Otahuhu principal's comments about marmite and cheese sandwiches is straight out of the playbook "I got thrashed with a belt when I was a child and it never did me any harm".
At least with the sandwich, the bread and cheese were fresh.
I recall a time when there was a barrage of complaints about hospital meals that were prepared and delivered from a central source. Perhaps David Seymour should realize that his model of efficiency is actually a model of waste.
Having recently had first hand exposure to those hospital meals I can verify that they are still bloody awful. I understand Compass is involved in Wellington Hospital meals also. Meals are not balanced, e.g, three types of starch, lack fibre and nutrition and taste terrible.
It's business as usual when the government awards lucrative contracts to their mates. But when the contractors in question can't even be bothered to get the launch of the new service right that we get to see just how shabby and corrupt the whole thing is.
Large multi-national organisations, deliver the absolute minimum for the most profit possible.
Which some may argue is the job of any business. I disagree as many businesses that connect with their communities know, you cannot get away with that for very long.
Schools are one of the few community gathering organisations we have left in our society. They are critical and should be treated as such.
Seymours main argument about cost savings is not a fair or good argument. All of that money was going directly back into local communities or local businesses.
Nevermind the utter disregard to the benefits of good nutritional food for kids. (https://apo.org.au/node/321482 - commissioned study into the programme from 2020)
I'd vote for a four year term if there was better holding to account by the opposition (proposed) and the ability to REMOVE UNDERPERFORMING GOVERNMENTS without waiting the full term.
Justifying a lunch service that is seriously underperforming with anecdotal accounts of marmite and cheese sandwiches doesn't cut it. ACT should be required to reimburse the public purse for all the additional money this is going to cost us over time. Plus compensation for all those local providers who lost their jobs to a psychopathic multinational provider. (They keep saying "sorry" but nothing changes and they have been doing this all over the world for years). When one compares the quality of the food it's clearly a case of unfair dismissal.
The idea that it's irrelevant whether kids like the meals or not and they should eat them because they're hungry is outdated. Food therapists and anyone raising a child now knows that, as with any kind of bodily autonomy, children have the right to choose what they do and do not put in their mouths at mealtime. Teaching them that they must force down unfamiliar and unappetising food because their teachers (or the government) insists, is teaching them a very harmful lesson about self-advocacy and power dynamics between children and adults. And if they're not even eating the lunches, we're not solving the problem.
Meanwhile back at the ranch.... Whatever you do don't break a leg. Three quarters of people with a disability don't have the support and care they need. Seymour probably thinks they should harden up too. Yet another example of the cuts, underfunding and downgrading this govt specializes in.
I recall a pronouncement from the Government that localism was to be encouraged. Clearly this doesn't apply to school lunches given community involvement in meal preparation and distribution is now being eschewed in favour of greedy multinational companies that are not connected to the community
The Otahuhu principal's comments about marmite and cheese sandwiches is straight out of the playbook "I got thrashed with a belt when I was a child and it never did me any harm".
At least with the sandwich, the bread and cheese were fresh.
I recall a time when there was a barrage of complaints about hospital meals that were prepared and delivered from a central source. Perhaps David Seymour should realize that his model of efficiency is actually a model of waste.
Having recently had first hand exposure to those hospital meals I can verify that they are still bloody awful. I understand Compass is involved in Wellington Hospital meals also. Meals are not balanced, e.g, three types of starch, lack fibre and nutrition and taste terrible.
It's business as usual when the government awards lucrative contracts to their mates. But when the contractors in question can't even be bothered to get the launch of the new service right that we get to see just how shabby and corrupt the whole thing is.
Large multi-national organisations, deliver the absolute minimum for the most profit possible.
Which some may argue is the job of any business. I disagree as many businesses that connect with their communities know, you cannot get away with that for very long.
Schools are one of the few community gathering organisations we have left in our society. They are critical and should be treated as such.
The drums need to keep beating.
Seymours main argument about cost savings is not a fair or good argument. All of that money was going directly back into local communities or local businesses.
Nevermind the utter disregard to the benefits of good nutritional food for kids. (https://apo.org.au/node/321482 - commissioned study into the programme from 2020)
I'd vote for a four year term if there was better holding to account by the opposition (proposed) and the ability to REMOVE UNDERPERFORMING GOVERNMENTS without waiting the full term.
Justifying a lunch service that is seriously underperforming with anecdotal accounts of marmite and cheese sandwiches doesn't cut it. ACT should be required to reimburse the public purse for all the additional money this is going to cost us over time. Plus compensation for all those local providers who lost their jobs to a psychopathic multinational provider. (They keep saying "sorry" but nothing changes and they have been doing this all over the world for years). When one compares the quality of the food it's clearly a case of unfair dismissal.
The idea that it's irrelevant whether kids like the meals or not and they should eat them because they're hungry is outdated. Food therapists and anyone raising a child now knows that, as with any kind of bodily autonomy, children have the right to choose what they do and do not put in their mouths at mealtime. Teaching them that they must force down unfamiliar and unappetising food because their teachers (or the government) insists, is teaching them a very harmful lesson about self-advocacy and power dynamics between children and adults. And if they're not even eating the lunches, we're not solving the problem.
It's a reworded version of "harden up". Sure you can try but it's like putting a plaster over a broken leg, pointless in the long run.
Meanwhile back at the ranch.... Whatever you do don't break a leg. Three quarters of people with a disability don't have the support and care they need. Seymour probably thinks they should harden up too. Yet another example of the cuts, underfunding and downgrading this govt specializes in.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/360460522/chef-serves-new-school-lunch-david-seymour-who-rates-it-9510
Remember this? Ever so slightly different to the 'temper your expectations' comment we're now being told.
I recall a pronouncement from the Government that localism was to be encouraged. Clearly this doesn't apply to school lunches given community involvement in meal preparation and distribution is now being eschewed in favour of greedy multinational companies that are not connected to the community