Ministry of Education staff working on the Healthy School Lunches programme spent approximately $130,000 on travel over a one-year period, an Official Information Act request has revealed.
The equivalent of 37 full-time staff work on the programme, including nine managers, 22 senior advisors, four programme coordinators, one development chef, and two communications advisors. The programme's general manager spent more than $17,600 between April 2025 and early March on accommodation and travel between Wellington and Rotorua. Another staff member's three trips to the Chatham Islands to set up the internal model at three schools cost more than $10,000.
Twelve staff hired since the start of 2025 had combined starting salaries totalling at least $1.1 million per year, with half in senior roles earning more than $100,000. One strategy and partnerships manager was hired in a pay band of at least $142,000 to $214,000.
The information, released through an OIA request from the Taxpayers' Union, showed the ministry had no analysis, briefings or advice on appropriate staffing for a programme primarily delivering services through external providers. The Audit Office this week found unfair procurement practices and inadequate monitoring of value for money in the programme.
Taxpayers' Union spokesperson Austin Ellingham-Banks said "for all that overhead, the Auditor-General found the ministry 'did not have sufficiently robust mechanisms to measure, manage, and monitor' the programme. What on earth are they all doing?"
Associate Education Minister David Seymour, who remodelled the programme, said "the taxpayers union are right there are contracts, but when you manage contracts worth over $200 million a year you do actually need to monitor them." The programme manages 333 providers delivering 36 million meals annually to 1,019 schools.