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Andrew Dickens: Targeted school lunches is the way to go · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

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  Speaker 1: So last week is the world puzzled over war and
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  Speaker 1: peace in the end of globalization and rules based free trade.
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  Speaker 1: New Zealand was wondering about our free lunch program in schools.
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  Speaker 1: David Seymour, a long term opponent of the idea, was
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  Speaker 1: put in charge of it by Prime Minister Christopher Luxan,
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  Speaker 1: which may have been a genius move politically, but this
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  Speaker 1: may rebound in their faces. The act leader reckons he
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  Speaker 1: can centralize it. Well he did and cut costs until
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  Speaker 1: each lunch costs three dollars a child. But then the
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  Speaker 1: providers had problems, none more so than the bell who
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  Speaker 1: went bust. And we finished the week bringing in lunches
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  Speaker 1: from Australia. But there's more sticking in the town that
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  Speaker 1: wasn't covered much. Longtime lister Matt, good morning to your Matt,
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  Speaker 1: and longtime opponent of the whole idea, was incensed by
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  Speaker 1: part of this story from last week and sent me
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  Speaker 1: an email. It was in the story about the Gisman
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  Speaker 1: kid who got burnt by his school lunch. But what
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  Speaker 1: got Matt was the revelation that the school orders three
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  Speaker 1: hundred and ten lunches each day, but at the moment
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  Speaker 1: one hundred and fifty go untouched by the kids who
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  Speaker 1: didn't like the look of the offering. And then the
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  Speaker 1: principal breathlessly reported that some have given up on the
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  Speaker 1: school lunches and they've started bringing their own meals from home,
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  Speaker 1: which is exactly what the parents should have been doing
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  Speaker 1: in the first place. And what Matt hated about that
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  Speaker 1: is the entitlement of those who took the meals but
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  Speaker 1: never needed them. And I think it's entirely predictable. Offered
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  Speaker 1: a free meal, who says no, except it's not free.
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  Speaker 1: You and I pay for it. But some parents will argue, Oh,
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  Speaker 1: that's us getting our tax back. We paid our taxes,
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  Speaker 1: we get a free lunch for Johnny Labor when they
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  Speaker 1: set this up thought that if one child goes hungry,
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  Speaker 1: then all children should be fed, which is why it
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  Speaker 1: got opened up for exploitation. So how do we fix this? Well,
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  Speaker 1: obviously the help should be targeted at the kids who
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  Speaker 1: are hungry, and if a kid comes to school hungry
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  Speaker 1: and empty handed, then they should be helped. So how
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  Speaker 1: do we do that? And I wonder how about a
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  Speaker 1: lunch club where the children who come in without food
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  Speaker 1: and are hungry put their hands up and offered a
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  Speaker 1: chance to make a meal for themselves if they need it.
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  Speaker 1: And maybe they could sit there together and make a
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  Speaker 1: toasted sandwich. Maybe they could make a marmite sandwich and
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  Speaker 1: make the Prime Minister happy, because remember what is that
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  Speaker 1: Chinese proverb? Give a man a fish, then he eats
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  Speaker 1: for a day. Teach him how to fish, and he
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  Speaker 1: feeds himself for a lifetime. Let's teach these kids how
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  Speaker 1: to make their own lunches. For more from Early Edition
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  Speaker 1: with Ryan Bridge, listen live to News Talks it'd be
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  Speaker 1: from five am weekdays, or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.