Survey shows junk-food school staple

The Green Party revealed today its latest survey of school food. It shows that sausage rolls, hot dogs, donuts, cookies and other sugary, fatty foods are the staple foods on offer in a majority of New Zealand schools.

The survey of 50 schools found that 84% of schools are still selling hot dogs, sausage rolls, hot bites or pies – an astonishing 14% increase since last year. 64% of schools are selling donuts, cookies or cakes, and 42% are selling chips.

Green Party MP Sue Kedgley said the results show that the School Food Guidelines dropped in February, at the whim of Education Minister Anne Tolley, need to be urgently reinstated.

"Schools are now free to sell as much junk food as they wish. Any improvement in school canteen food since the inception of the now abandoned School Food Guidelines is likely to be lost.

"Our survey shows that contrary to what Anne Tolley claims, waiting for schools to improve their menus voluntarily isn’t going to work. Government leadership and direction is needed and the Nutritional Guidelines need to be urgently reinstated."

Ms Kedgley welcomed improvements in some areas - with 65% of schools now offering bottled water and 70% selling fruit. But she said it was surprising to find that the number of schools selling hot dogs, sausage rolls, hot bites or pies has actually increased by 14% over the past year.

Another surprising finding was that only 18% of schools are implementing the School Food and Beverage Guidelines, and categorising food as ‘occasional’, sometimes and ‘everyday’ food in their menus, as the guidelines stipulate.

"I assume the reason so few schools are implementing the school food and beverage guidelines is because the Minister has removed any requirement for them to do so," said Ms Kedgley.

"Sixty percent of children buy food at school canteens, so the quality of food on offer is important.

"Most parents wouldn’t feed their children a constant diet of sausage rolls, donuts and chips, so why do we allow our schools to sell this sort of food on a daily basis?"