Austere and Burnt Offerings: Countering the Material and Symbolic Othering Within School Meals in Aotearoa New Zealand with a Community Psychology Lens

Globally, school meals have formed a social safety net for improving children’s nutrition, health, and educational attainment. In Aotearoa New Zealand, government funded lunches for children attending schools in low-income neighbourhoods were introduced in 2020, amidst rising poverty levels and consequent household food insecurity. The aspirations encapsulated within the scheme’s indigenous Māori name, ‘Ka Ora, Ka Ako’ (‘to be well, healthy and safe; to be ready to learn’) have lost focus since reforms to the lunches in 2024 prioritised cost savings, resulting in widely publicised quality issues. This present study draws from a critical multi-level investigation into the issue of hungry children in New Zealand schools, prior to the introduction of ‘Ka Ora, Ka Ako’. Narrative analysis identified how food in schools has been conceptualised within the context of a settler colonial charity model and neoliberal austerity. Applying a critical community psychology lens highlights how burnt and meagre lunches offered to children from food insecure households are a concrete product of historically grounded, unequal relations between groups. A community psychology approach reimagines state-funded food in schools as a public good, arguing for equitable rights to nutrition, including recognition of Māori rights to food sovereignty.