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Speaker 1: You're listening to the Saturday Morning with Jack Teams podcast

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Speaker 1: from News Talks.

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Speaker 2: A'd be well, I suppose it was inevitable that something

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Speaker 2: would go wrong. It wasn't like the new school lunch

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Speaker 2: providers all had the opportunity to ease into their work.

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Speaker 2: You know, they didn't do huge practice runs or slowly

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Speaker 2: build up capacity over time. For most of them, it

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Speaker 2: was a case of going from zero to one hundred

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Speaker 2: day one of the school year, and they had to

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Speaker 2: be zipping along in fifth gear. And you know, all

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Speaker 2: you needed were a couple of photos of a few

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Speaker 2: mishits word of a few schools with missing lunches, and

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Speaker 2: news spread on social media in a way that blunders

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Speaker 2: never would have under the last school lunch regime. And

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Speaker 2: don't mean it makes sense right, think about it. Last

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Speaker 2: year or anyone, any parent, any educator, any school had

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Speaker 2: to compare school lunches to was the previous regime when

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Speaker 2: schools were provided with nothing. Now, well, now there's a

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Speaker 2: different precedent. And if we're honest, you know, if we're

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Speaker 2: totally honest, there is a bit of a political dimension

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Speaker 2: at play somewhere, isn't there. David Seymour is so attached

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Speaker 2: to the school lunch funding cuts, but he's a polarizing figure,

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Speaker 2: especially in educational communities, and just as he's happy to

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Speaker 2: soak up political support for being the guy making the

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Speaker 2: funding cuts, I'm sure there are more than a few

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Speaker 2: educators out there who are quietly willing David Seymour to fail.

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Speaker 2: All that being said, I don't think anyone who has

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Speaker 2: seen the kind of examples of some of the stodgy

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Speaker 2: offerings being sent out to schools or not being sent

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Speaker 2: out has has also been the case, could possibly argue

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Speaker 2: with the young students who have reportedly been comparing their

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Speaker 2: school lunches with dog food. It's funny. I was listening

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Speaker 2: to NEWSTALKSZ'DB the day when someone said that presentation doesn't matter.

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Speaker 2: It's simple. If the kids don't eat the meals, then

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Speaker 2: they really can't be that hungry. I mean, for anyone

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Speaker 2: who's actually spent time around children, they'll know just how

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Speaker 2: naive and misguided that is. Sure, if we were in

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Speaker 2: the midst of a full blown famine, then you might

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Speaker 2: reasonably expect kids to eat any old slop. But mercifully

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Speaker 2: we are not in a famine, and actually hungry kids

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Speaker 2: don't always act rationally. Most young children would prefer to

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Speaker 2: go without kai for an afternoon than be forced to

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Speaker 2: eat a tray of dog food. You probably would too.

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Speaker 2: Presentation matters. It's funny. I was discussing it with a

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Speaker 2: mate this week and he said the whole thing still

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Speaker 2: really annoys him because it should be parents responsibility to

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Speaker 2: feed their children, not the New Zealand taxpayer. Sure, I said, yeah,

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Speaker 2: in a perfect world, I totally agree. But unfortunately, in

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Speaker 2: case you haven't noticed, this, ain't it For whatever reason,

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Speaker 2: there are thousands and thousands of kids who, without school lunches,

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Speaker 2: would not be eating three square meals a day. Even

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Speaker 2: if you think it is all the parents fault in

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Speaker 2: every single case, none of those kids can choose their

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Speaker 2: parents any more than we choose ours. And he's the

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Speaker 2: thing I think risks being lost in this whole episode.

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Speaker 2: Full ballies aren't just good for the kids who would

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Speaker 2: otherwise be going without. They're good for all of us.

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Speaker 2: At a moment in time when our government is literally

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Speaker 2: soliciting for ideas to drive economic growth, there are few

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Speaker 2: things that will drive our future productivity in this country,

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Speaker 2: like better educational achievement. Kids who are hungry, do not learn.

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Speaker 2: An investment in a full belly today is an investment

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Speaker 2: in growth in twenty years time. It's an investment in skills,

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Speaker 2: in businesses, in innerv The new school lunch program is

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Speaker 2: off to a lumpy start, literally in many cases, and look,

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Speaker 2: teething issues were inevitable. I really hope it'll improve, but

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Speaker 2: I can tell you this much. For all the concern

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Speaker 2: over the state of the books, the savings made from

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Speaker 2: the school lunch program are worth nothing if the kids

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Speaker 2: don't eat.

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Speaker 1: For more from Saturday Morning with Jack Tame, Listen live

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Speaker 1: to newstalks ' b from nine am Saturday, or follow

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