Lunch, or a miracle

On why free school lunches matter – and what a group of rangatahi at Waitākere College are doing to save them.

Nau mai, haere mai. Welcome to The Boil Up, The Spinoff’s food newsletter. I hope you’re hungry!

Image: Brandee Thorburn

Yesterday, I forgot to eat lunch. It was 3pm by the time I acknowledged that there was a very simple solution to my foggy brain, melancholic mood and lack of energy. I dragged myself to the kitchen to heat up some leftovers, scoffed them, and returned to functionality.

In my past life as a high school teacher, I worked in schools with free lunches and without. As a beginning teacher in one of the latter schools – decile 4, and therefore just above the threshold for the scheme – I quickly learned to plan something low-key when I had my Year 12s after lunch. Why this class specifically? Well, because this school streamed, and we know streaming reflects socio-economic status, many of my low stream seniors were from low-income families, struggling families, or had immensely complicated lives outside of school. These students were less likely to bring lunch to school, or to bring enough lunch to properly sustain their growing bodies and thinking brains. They weren’t being lazy or losing the plot during afternoon classes because they were bad or incapable. They would never admit it, but they were hungry.

Once I figured this out, I pivoted. On my meagre teacher salary, I began buying bags of bread rolls and cheese slices, packets of muesli bars and sacks of apples, all of which would disappear in minutes, save for a few apples. When I eventually moved to a school with Ka Ora, Ka Ako, I couldn’t believe the difference. Afternoon classes were still the worst, especially period 5 with the Year 10s right after PE, but they were nothing like what I’d experienced before. They were still teenagers, they still had their moments, but teenagers with full bellies can focus, can listen, can learn.

And there was such an abundance of kai. Instead of feeling sick guilt whenever a student asked if I had any food when I didn’t, I could remind them they only had to hold out a little longer for lunch, or even hand them a mandarin or bag of Grain Waves from my cupboard – there were always leftovers snacks which teachers were encouraged to take for their classrooms, or to offer in the tutorials or extra-curricular sessions we ran, or to eat ourselves.

I could write so much about the importance of this programme, but I think it’s more important to hear from the rangatahi on the ground. At Waitākere College, a Year 11 Social Studies class has been following David Seymour’s campaign to cut funding for free school lunches despite findings that the programme has had “profound impact on wellbeing” and has taken action by starting the @wc_school.lunches campaign.

Image: Brandee Thorburn

“The reason I feel passionate about this campaign is that I feel no student or person should go without food,” Hlaina Goffin (15) explains. “Free school lunches are the only food available to some students, so why should we take away or cut the budget to something that is helping the future people of the country?” Each day, the group take photos of students holding Seymour masks up and handwritten signs with slogans such as “PREVENT FOOD INSECURITY” and “#KEEPITHOT”, posting them to social media and tagging ministers. Many of the students pictured are clutching cardboard boxes containing the very kai they are seeking to protect: shepherd’s pie, butter chicken and rice, beef lasagne, fruit, muffins, cassava chips. When asked what inspired them to start this campaign, Gabrielle Manuhuia (15) cites her teacher, Ms Thorburn, who introduced the topic of food insecurity to their Social Studies class and ran an inquiry into the impacts of Ka Ora, Ka Ako; as well as another student at the school who had previously contacted local MP Phil Twyford about the cuts. Maia McQuoid (15) says the funding cuts make her “feel concerned for many of the students at Waitākere College who really enjoy these meals, but not just for them, also their families. Free warm meals have really lifted a weight off many parents and caregivers’ shoulders.”

Phil Twyford, MP for Te Atatū, visits Waitākere College to support the campaign.

“One of the main reasons the programme exists is to reduce child poverty, food insecurity and hunger. Hunger is said to put a child back four years behind their peers in school,” Jessica Brooker (15) explains. “Not having enough energy causes them to act up and not have the focus needed. So for children to be benefited by the food they eat at school, kids need to eat something healthy rather than junky.”

But it’s not just other tamariki and rangatahi these student activists are standing up for. Jessica is also concerned about how these cuts will impact the wider school community. “I joined this campaign after hearing that the FED employees (who provide food for us) were going to lose their jobs next year, due to the shift where food will come from a central source rather than from small businesses. My inspiration is the fact that people need jobs and are struggling, yet the government is taking jobs rather than providing opportunities.”

Special thanks to Brandee Thorburn and her students for sharing their thoughts with me.

Weekly bites

I recently learned that a friend of mine has a gig driving around Whangārei photographing meals for a certain food delivery app. I was surprised, because in Tāmaki, I’ve noticed some of the photographs on this app are not, in fact, photographs. Lyric Waiwiri-Smith noticed the same thing and has written an excellent piece touching on the history of doctored food imagery – we’ve all heard the line that food stylists use mashed potatoes in place of ice cream, right? – to consider the question of whether restaurants should be able to use AI images to advertise their offerings. If you love this topic and want to read more on it, this piece from Eater is also great, as is this creepy study revealing that consumers often prefer AI-generated images of food over real food images.

Some excellent kai stories coming out of the capital lately, including this one about where the top chefs in Pōneke like to eat on their days off (and what they like to eat – “baguette with (lots of) butter and prosciutto”!); Preyanka Gothanayagi’s detailed tasting tour of the best pies in the city; and Fran Barclay’s review of New World’s $10 lunch offering (this one’s not necessarily Wellington-specific, but she does buy her lunch from the Willis Street branch). Given that New World Thorndon’s sammie took out the top spot on Bryer Oden’s tasting tour earlier this year, I had higher hopes for the lunch deal – but perhaps it varies from store to store?

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Snack Review

Spicy Stir-fried Fish Cake $10 for a good-sized container from Dosirock inside Foodie Asian Supermarket, Westgate

(please note this is only half full, for $10 you get a stuffed container)

Whenever I go out for Korean food, my favourite banchan is always the fish cake or eomuk bokkeum. It’s the one I keep getting refilled, that and the danmuji (pickled radish), if they have it – I always wimp out of adding enough sugar when I make it myself at home. As it turns out, I’m not the only fish cake fan. When I visit Foodie for the first time with two friends, we all freak out at the banchan bar, struggling to choose from such a vast array of kimchi (I got the chive one, it slaps), agonising over the $40 marinated crab (we didn’t get it, but we will). But all three of us grabbed a box of fish cake without even a moment’s pause. No hesitation, no need to mull it over, straight into the trolley.

When I got home, it was the first thing I cracked open. While I was cooking dinner later that night, I brought the tub over to my partner and we both ate some more, groaning with happiness. I made crispy skinned, orange-scented salmon on brown rice with various veggie accompaniments, but the best thing in that luxurious bowl was still the fish cakes. It’s sweet and savoury and spicy with a bouncy, chewy texture that is so satisfying, especially when you get a firm strand of carrot too, or a mellow rod of spring onion, tiny pops of sesame seed. To have the luxury of a full container in my fridge, no need to ask someone for a top up… the more I think about it, the more I want to go straight to the fridge with my chopsticks, the more I think eomuk bokkeum might need to be a fridge staple. 10/10, obviously.