Kia ora Miss W. Forest
 
Thank you for your OIA request.
 
The Ministry will consider and respond to your request in accordance with
the Official Information Act 1982 (the Act).
 
Under section 15(1) of the Act, we are required to make and inform you of
our decision on your request as soon as reasonably practicable and in any
case not later than 20 working days after the day on which your request is
received. You can therefore expect to receive our decision on your request
on or before 1 April  2025. If more than 20 working days are needed due to
the potential workload and/or consultations involved in answering your
request, we will notify you accordingly.
 
The Ministry may publicly release on our website the response to your
request five days after you have received it. Any personal information
will be removed.
 
In the interim, if you have any questions about your request, please email
[1][email address]
 
Ngā mihi
 
 
Enquiries National Team | Te Tāhuhu o te Mātauranga | Ministry of
Education | PN education.govt.nz
 
We shape an education system that delivers equitable and excellent
outcomes He mea tārai e mātou te mātauranga kia rangatira ai, kia mana
taurite ai ōna
 
 

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Tēnā koe W. Forest

 

Please find attached a letter regarding your request under the Official
Information Act.

  

Nāku noa, nā,

Official and Parliamentary Information | Ministry of Education | AM

[1]education.govt.nz

He mea tārai e mātou te mātauranga kia rangatira ai, kia mana taurite ai
ōna huanga
We shape an education system that delivers equitable and excellent
outcomes
[2][IMG]

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Tēnā koe W. Forest

 

Thank you for your query about the Ka Ora, Ka Ako | Healthy School Lunches
programme. Our focus is to provide the 242,000 students in the programme a
nutritious meal, they enjoy eating, every school day. Providing healthy
meals in the most cost-effective way possible is an important part of the
school lunches programme.

As a whole, the programme is working well. Schools on the internal and
iwi/hapū delivery models continue to provide lunches that are well
received by students. 

We acknowledge that there have been some challenges in term one with
implementation of the School Lunch Collective (SLC) external model to
provide lunches to around 125,000 students on the programme. Recent
delivery from SLC has consistently been over 97% on time to schools, and
the new menu for term two includes a variety of nutritious meals students
have said they enjoy.

All suppliers, including the SLC, are committed to meeting the service
levels in agreements, and they continue to listen to feedback from schools
and students to resolve challenges quickly.

While you have asked for specific information about the programme, please
take the opportunity to visit Ministry of Education’s (the Ministry
website which includes procurement documents that have been proactively
released. [1]Ka Ora, Ka Ako | Healthy School Lunches: information for
schools

Your email of 4 March 2025 requested the following information:

 1. Contract with the Collective relating to the school lunches program.
 2. Competing tenders from other providers.
 3. Advice received / documentation about tender selection how the
Collective won it.
 4. Original evaluation criteria how to select the winning tender and how
this was communicated out.
 5. Copies of RFP / other requests made to the Collective / other
competing entities to participate on the tender to provide the
lunches.
 6. All the proposals received from the Collective.
 7. The make-up of board of advisors evaluating the RFP and their
conflicts of interest/s.

Your request has been considered under the Official Information Act 1982
(the Act).

Regarding parts one, two, three and four of your request, we have
published a response to a previous request where procurement documents and
communications with other government agencies were released. We are
refusing to provide a copy of these under section 18(d) of the Act, as the
information is publicly available at the following links:

OIA 1338537 letter:
[2]https://web-assets.education.govt.nz/s3f...

OIA 1338537 Appendix B:
[3]https://web-assets.education.govt.nz/s3f...

OIA 1338537 Appendix C:
[4]https://web-assets.education.govt.nz/s3f...

Please note that some of the information has been withheld under the
following sections of the Act:

o 9(2)(a), to protect the privacy of natural persons.
o 9(2)(b)(ii), to protect information where the making available of the
information would be likely unreasonably to prejudice the commercial
position of the person who supplied or who is the subject of the
information.
o 9(2)(f)(iv), to maintain the constitutional conventions for the time
being which protect the confidentiality of advice tendered by
Ministers of the Crown and officials.
o 9(2)(g)(i), to maintain the effective conduct of public affairs
through the free and frank expression of opinions by or between or to
Ministers of the Crown or members of an organisation or officers and
employees of any public service agency or organisation in the course
of their duty.

As required under section 9(1) of the Act, we have considered the public
interest in releasing the information withheld. We do not consider that
the public interest considerations favouring the release of this
information are sufficient to outweigh the need to withhold it at this
time.

The Ministry followed a planned procurement process that resulted in the
selection of Compass Group New Zealand (lead for the SLC) as the supplier
for the main school lunches contract. A summary of the procurement process
is outlined below:

o The first stage of the process consisted of an open Registration of
Interest (ROI) advertised on the Government Electronic Tender Service
(GETS).    

o The ROI invited responses from suppliers who could meet the Ministry’s
requirements, including the Cabinet directed pricing of $3 per meal,
in one or more of the following areas:   

o Produce and deliver school lunches to defined groups of schools
within specified geographic areas, with the ability to scale up
if required (termed clusters).   
o Wholesale distribution services (national network).   
o Integrated solution suppliers who could provide a wholesale
distribution and lunch provider service.    
o Food Manufacturers/Producers who could supply food
products/ingredients required by the programme.   

o The Registration of Interest (ROI) pack details the steps that
organisations taking part in the process were required to follow. 

o A total of 133 responses were received across the above streams. 

o 16 respondents were not progressed to full evaluation. These may have
been due to submitting incomplete responses, failing preconditions, or
submitted late. 

o From the ROI evaluation process an initial shortlist of suppliers was
selected.    

o The initial shortlist consisted of the top scoring suppliers who met
the ROI criteria, offering a range of solutions:   

o Integrated solutions.   
o National wholesaler / distributor solutions.   
o National coverage meal provider solutions.   
o Regional coverage lunch provider solutions.   
o Localised solutions for clusters (locations) the Ministry
recognises are harder to service (regional pressure points).   

Negotiation and clarification discussions were held with selected
shortlisted suppliers to understand in more detail the solutions put
forward. From these discussions, Compass Group New Zealand, as the lead
for the SLC, was identified as the preferred supplier that best met the
ROI criteria. The Ministry then proceeded with detailed negotiations with
Compass Group New Zealand, followed by a contract award
recommendation. The contract award decision was announced on 22 October
2024.

We are refusing parts five and six of your request under section 18(a) of
the Act, since, by virtue of section 9(2)(b)(ii) of the Act, there is good
reason for withholding the information requested, as set out above.

Regarding part seven of your request, we are withholding the names of the
evaluation panel members under section 9(2)(a) of the Act, as above. Three
of the scoring members of the evaluation panel for this procurement had
previously held a working relationship with a provider of current
services. Any potential for bias in these individuals’ evaluations was
mitigated through the final moderation of all panel members. Audit New
Zealand also observed the moderation panel discussion, as part of its
probity role.

One non-scoring evaluator who reviewed proposals and presented written
comments and observations to the evaluation team at the commencement of
the moderation process has previously held employment with one of the
providers involved in the procurement process.

Please note, we may publish this response on our website after five
working days. Your name and contact details will be removed.

Thank you again for your email, we appreciate hearing about all interest
in the school lunches programme. You have the right to ask an Ombudsman to
review the decision on your request, in accordance with section 28 of the
Act. You can do this by writing to [5][email address] or to
Office of the Ombudsman, PO Box 10152, Wellington 6143. 

Nāku noa, nā,

Official and Parliamentary Information | Ministry of Education | ED

[6]education.govt.nz

He mea tārai e mātou te mātauranga kia rangatira ai, kia mana taurite ai
ōna huanga
We shape an education system that delivers equitable and excellent
outcomes
[7][IMG]

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