not taking free school meals

[ineedabreaks]

My DS's both have FSM at secondary school. They have decided they want pack lunches next term because the school are doing limited catering and shorter lunch breaks and they don't want to queue up. Do I need to tell the school?

I’m a catering manager in a secondary school, we use parent pay and children entitled to FSM have the credit automatically loaded to their account each day. This is cleared at the end of the day if unused. If the child who is entitled doesn’t use the allowance it’s up to the family. We have some kids who are entitled who rarely use it.

@BerryPieandCustard

I’m a catering manager in a secondary school, we use parent pay and children entitled to FSM have the credit automatically loaded to their account each day. This is cleared at the end of the day if unused. If the child who is entitled doesn’t use the allowance it’s up to the family. We have some kids who are entitled who rarely use it.

thanks. Their school uses parent pay as well. I wondered whether I should tell them because of planning with all the covid changes that are going on? Mind you they might yet end up having their FSM as I have put the responsibility on them both to come up with a shopping list of what they need for lunches for the first week and no list means no packed lunches - they are 15 and 16 so more than capable.

Where I work and at the vast majority of secondary schools I know students don’t pre order a meal like in primary school. We just cater for say 500 and the kids come and choose what they want we only adjust the numbers if a trip will mean a large number of students will be out so a couple of kids not having their FSM allowance won’t impact production.
Hopefully you get the shopping list!!

Thanks. I'll leave it then.