When David Seymour announced that next month's budget would "likely" see major cuts to free school lunches, 1News invited the associate education minister to meet with students on the Ka Ora, Ka Ako programme, which feeds about 235,000 students in Aotearoa. Seymour wasn't available to meet Manurewa High School's head prefects until May. But in the meantime, head girl Meletonga Konousi talked free lunches with Indira Stewart.
MELETONGA KONOUSI: Everyone needs to be fed.
Even though some people may look at us students as poorer people that may have more needs, at the end of the day, everyone needs to eat.
Myself and Mone (head boy Filimone Vuna), were really hoping that David Seymour would come to our school to meet with us.
Mone says this joke that his name isn’t "David Seymour", it’s "David See-less" and it cracks us up but it’s true. To us, he’s giving ‘"David See-less’" because we feel like he only sees from a really small perspective.
He says he wants to cut up to half of the budget for free lunches in our schools and focus more on students that really need it. But how does he know who really, really needs it? Is he going to compare us?
As a school I feel we should be coming together and supporting each other but it’s a little bit like survival of the fittest if only some of the students in our school are allowed to get a free lunch because they need it more than others do.
I believe the others might think that they’re not good enough because if that was me, if I was in their shoes, I would be thinking, ‘Why am I even here? Am I even good enough to continue living? Food is a basic need so is it something that I don’t need?’
Maybe David Seymour’s trying to make a positive change but I think he needs to broaden his mind so he can see that there are different situations and different things that people are going through. I believe if he got to know us more, his views of politics would change.
From Epsom to Manurewa
I think he's from Epsom? The lifestyle in Epsom compared to here in Manurewa – it's very different. I can see people here are struggling. Outside of school there are people on the streets with no homes, no food just the clothes on their back. I don't think you really see that in Epsom. I think he needs to actually see the reality that we have living here.
He hasn't really tried to understand what we're going through – from Epsom. He could’ve made time, even if it was just for half an hour, to come and hear from us. But it’s OK, he must have other priorities.
I had a lot of questions and I also wanted to hear his views. I reckon if he did come, we could’ve put our roles aside, throw it all out the window and talk face-to-face, human-to-human.
I understand different politicans have different views and I can see that he has a logical approach to the school lunches but I think in a situation like this where we're actually dealing with lives of human beings, we need to be empathetic.
The best meal they've had in a while
If you think that school lunches can solve all our problems by itself, it doesn’t even make sense. But it helps us a lot. I see other students who are struggling with lots of issues, including financially, and it affects their learning. We function way better in class having food in our stomach. I can attest to that. It helps me to work more efficiently. I don’t think David Seymour seeing this with an education approach. He should be more positive and understand that we as students need those school lunches to do well.
Sometimes I see other students take their school lunches and any spares and pack it in their bags to take it home and we completely understand why. And we never judge eachother because we all know the struggle in South Auckland. We try not to let our struggles define us but when we get school lunches, it gives us self-worth.
Everytime we have hot foods, I’m always keen. Okay, if I’m being honest – I usually get two. There was this meal we had last year which was like battered chicken, cheese and rice with some veggies. I still remember it because it was so nice. That was probably my favourite.
Some of the students in our school, they may not say it but having these lunches is probably like the best meal they've had in a while. It also gives them a positive outlook on life even if they may be going through struggles personally or with their family financially. It’s kind of like a little reassurance that things will get better for the future.
Every time I get a free lunch I feel happy. It shows me that people, like my school, actually care about us. For us students, we know our worth and that's all thanks to MH (Manurewa High School).
People in our local community work in our kitchen
On Wednesdays I have training at school at 6am because I'm part of a student leadership group called JAM and whenever I come in that early I see that our kitchen lights are already on and our chefs are there cooking and working hard. There are lots of people in our local community that work in our kitchen. I love that they put a lot of effort into making sure that the food is good for us and that we enjoy it. I’m so grateful that we have things like this.
Our school is built on the foundation of unity, like togetherness. It doesn't matter if you’re in a big as group like the Tongan Polyfest group or if you’re in something small like the Library council. No matter what group you're in, you just know who you are.
The thing with self-growth, and having others help you along the way, it definitely builds your self-esteem and makes you more confident about yourself and your identity.
Because we’re from South Auckland all of us mainly go through the same struggles so in my mind it’s like, besides my family, I still have my school that has my back.
In South Auckland, we’re really strong repping where we come from but on top of that we don’t always really show our true reality maybe due to embarrassment. But at the end of the day it’s still considered a strength for us because we go through so much difficulty and struggles and yet here we are continuing to thrive and strive every single day
Being Pasifika has taught me a lot about staying grounded and serving others. I always make sure that I’m kind to others that I interact with because you never know what they’re going through.
In our culture we will serve others even though we’re hungry ourselves and we may not show it. We always make sure other people are fed.
As told to Indira Stewart.
SHARE ME