Some of the rancid lunches had already been eaten by students. Photo: Supplied
Christchurch parents are horrified after their children ate a contaminated meal from the government's free school lunches programme.
The School Lunch Collective told RNZ it was investigating a "food quality issue" after mouldy mince was served up to students at Haeata Community Campus on Monday.
The Collective represents Compass Group, which was contracted to provide government-funded lunches for the Christchurch school.
The school, which had students from Years 1 to 13, said a teacher noticed Monday's lunch was off after they had been distributed to a number of children.
Parent Kalah Balir said her 12-year-old daughter ate half of the meal before realising it was bad.
"She said I was hungry, so I got through half of it, and it was yuck, so I threw it away.
"I'm angry, I'm disgusted, it's just sick that was served to children. It's dangerous.
"I don't hold any fault with the school, as soon as they were alerted to the problem, they did try to fix it, of course, but the meals are sealed for safety reasons.
"The government just needs to do better, our kids do not deserve this."
Rebecca McKenzie's daughter also stopped eating the meal because it "tasted disgusting".
"I was annoyed, disgusted, and disappointed that this could happen to our kids," she said.
"I have four kids at home, two of them go to Haeata. We as a family rely on those school lunches, but I'm actually very hesitant about letting them eat them from now on."
"A lot of parents rely on school meals to help them out, because rent is sky-high, food is sky-high. To have this happen is like a kick in the teeth, really."
She said the lunches had overall been a let-down this year, but Monday's had been the worst yet.
"They're not very nice at all. Some of them I wouldn't even give to my dog."
Both parents said their children did not feel sick after eating the meal, but they were watching for food poisoning symptoms.
Speaking to First Up on Tuesday morning, Deputy Prime Minister David Seymour, said what appeared to have happened was lunches from an earlier day were served to children.
"Whether that happened through the distributor or whether that happened with a mix up at the school is unclear."
Seymour said there had been no illness as a result - that he knew of.
He said testing was being done to get to the bottom of how it happened.
Earlier this year, the principal of the Christchurch school asked to get out of a contract with Compass Group following several weeks of problems and "disappointing" service, but this was denied by the government.
Compass Group was not included on a list of providers chosen by the government to provide school lunches in 2026.
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