Lunch provider School Lunch Collective informed schools across the country that as of this week, all lunches in the programme would be free of a wider range of allergens and halal-friendly.
Mataura Community Board member Steve "Boko" Dixon told The Ensign the change was "just wrong".
"If they’ve got allergies, don’t take them," he said.
"Why deprive everybody else?"
If students with food allergies ate meals not meant for them, the outcome was their own fault, he said.
"If they’re dumb enough to take them, well — Darwin’s."
Allergy NZ chief executive Mark Dixon — no relation to Steve — said he was "aghast" to hear the other Mr Dixon’s comments.
"We’re disappointed that view has been aired by a person looking for public standing ... but we know that simple education has the potential to change that view," he said.
The chief executive said schools had a responsibility to provide safe and inclusive environments for children, free of judgement.
A School Lunch Collective spokesperson told the Ensign the change was just a processing update.
The lunches had mostly been halal-friendly and free of the allergens listed for quite some time, but now they would be easier to process.
"We have been working closely with schools and kura, the Ministry of Education and the Ministry for Primary Industries on these updates to simplify the labelling for special meals for students with allergies, intolerance, ethical or religious requirements," they said.
Because all meals were halal friendly and allergen-free, it made sense to remove the dietary specifications from the ordering system, making it easier for everyone involved, the spokesperson said.
When told this was the reason, Steve Dixon said he still did not approve of the change.
There was probably a small percentage of the population that was allergic to peanuts, and it made no sense to deprive the rest, he said.
If students with an allergy to peanuts were "dumb enough" to eat a lunch not meant for them, Charles Darwin’s theory of natural selection would apply.
Darwin’s theory, first published in 1859, says animals with useful traits are more likely to survive and pass those traits on to their young.
Allergy NZ Southland volunteer co-ordinator Wendy Jenkins joined the organisation after raising her son Oliver, now in his 30s, who had two food allergies that caused anaphylaxis.
Each school year, she would go in and educate the other students on her son’s condition and the epipens and other medicines kept in class for his health, she said.
Passionate about education, her number one rule was she would support her son as a child, so he could support himself as a young man.
"The schools are obviously trying to include everyone’s health needs and ethnicities, which is what we want and it’s what we teach our children: inclusiveness," she said.
Māruawai College, whose notification newsletter sparked Steve Dixon’s response, declined to respond to his comments, as did the School Lunch Collective.
