The principal of a school where mouldy food was fed to children insists there was a “systems failure in the contract” not of its making, despite food safety officials and the Deputy Prime Minister claiming otherwise.
Earlier this week a food poisoning warning was issued after several Christchurch school children at Haeata Community Campus ate school lunches covered in thick mould.
Principal Peggy Burrows told media some students had fallen sick from the food.
However, Seymour - Associate Education Minister and proponent of the revamped school lunches scheme - suggested the school may not have properly handled meals delivered by the Government contractor, Compass Group.
Seymour cited a New Zealand Food Safety report yesterday that said it was “more than likely that the affected meals at the school had been delivered the previous Thursday, remained at the school without refrigeration, and then were accidentally re-served to students along fresh meals delivered on Monday”.
“We have considered all possible causes,” deputy director-general Vince Arbuckle said.
“This would explain the deterioration of the meals.”
The lunches served at Haeata Community Campus were covered in a thick layer of mould.
Burrows said Food Safety officers were shown video evidence that the meals weren’t delivered the previous week, but Seymour, appearing on Herald NOW’s political panel this morning, questioned this.
“You’ve got 15 other schools that got the same meals on the same day, no other complaints,” he told host Ryan Bridge.
“You’ve got a principal who’s been a frequent flyer routinely complaining about the ... meals and rushing off to the media to do it. And you’ve got an official government body that’s done an inquiry and made a finding that it was the school that did it.
“So, there’s always a possibility that ... it’s not the school’s fault, but you know, where else do you go with that?”
Seymour said the school had an opportunity to provide video evidence to NZ Food Safety.
“There’s a great line in an old song, two men say they’re Jesus, one of them must be wrong,” he said.
David Seymour has defended the free school lunch scheme as a "huge success story", saying changes enacted have nearly halved its once annual cost of $340m. Photo / Mark Mitchell
“We’ve taken a scheme that was costing about $340 million a year.
“We’ve nearly halved that cost, so we’re saving hundreds of millions of dollars a year, and actually, overwhelmingly, people are happy with the way that it’s performing.
“Were there problems in the first term? Yep. Did we fix them? Yep. In a country that needs to save money and do stuff more productively, it’s actually a huge success story.”
Burrows said she didn’t want the school lunch issue to be politicised and is only focused on notifying breaches of contract.
“I very much want to emphasise all we want to look at is the contract that Compass Group hold with the ministry and a systems failure within that contract. That’s all I’m asking for,” she said.
“Haeata has been very proactive in supporting the lunch program. We’re very grateful for it. It’s huge in our community because it’s one of the most vulnerable communities in the country.
“And whenever we highlight things, it’s because there is genuine concern.”
Burrows said she was willing to release footage to support the school’s claims, but with their facilities owned and managed by a consortium, they would need to work through its legality first.
“I would release it in an instant if I were able to.”
Green Party co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick, appearing alongside Seymour, said the minister was “once again using his platform to bully a member of the public”, characterising the meals as “inedible slop”.
Responding to Swarbrick’s claim after the panel, Seymour called the proposition “baseless”.
The minister and Haeata Community Campus principal have been at loggerheads since the incident.
Paul Harbey, a spokesperson for the School Lunch Collective representing Compass Group, also said the school didn’t return one of the heated containers last Thursday that meals are delivered in.
“There were nine Cambro [food storage] boxes of the savoury mince and potatoes meal delivered to Haeata Community Campus on Thursday 27 November, however, records show only eight were returned to us.
“One Cambro box has sat at ambient temperatures at the school since that date.
“[On Monday] more than 73,000 lunches of the same recipe were served nationwide, with no concerns raised by any other school.”
In messages seen by the Herald, Burrows told a Food Safety officer that video footage only showed eight Cambro boxes being delivered by and returned to Compass.
She requested clarification on Food Safety’s findings.
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