Free school meals another U-turn

[LadyWithLapdog]

www.bbc.co.uk/news/amp/education-54841316

Another U-turn. Well done Marcus Rashford. If Sunak can print another 150 billion for quantitative easing until March, they can find money for this cause.

52andblue - you have picked some of the most expensive things in your example - stuff that even a lot of high earning families like ours wouldnt buy.....eg blueberries. what about tins of tomatoes, rice, jacket potatoes, frozen veg, baked beans, mince? surely the co-op sells these?

We also have a Tory MP who voted against extending the FSM voucher help scheme to the holidays, starting at the October half term just gone, and a local council who decided not to provide help either. Shame on all of them. If this new u-turn funding is being administered by local councils, I don't have much confidence that our local council will pass it all on to every family usually in receipt of FSM.

@52andblue I completely agree it is a far more complexed issue than others are suggesting. When faced with the choice parents will undoubtedly try to get food that will fill their children and provide more meals. They often don’t have the luxury of the alternative. The vast majority of parents are genuinely trying their best and they are trying to feed their children however they can. They are not deliberately making their children obese by making poor choices - they’re just feeding them. That’s exactly what the Guardian article was trying to highlight. There was also an excellent channel 4 documentary about a year ago called ‘Britain’s hidden hunger’. This is a very complexed issue with many reasons. I think Marcus Rashford has done a tremendous job.

@dreamingofsun
Only the blueberries. (flor us that would be a Birthday Brunch)
But my Co op rarely has cheap seasonal fruit such as plums, or cooking apples (even dessert apples can be £2.99 a pack this year)
I also mentioned sausages, rice, eggs, flour, veg, bread: ie basics. Very little frozen veg: a pack of frozen peas in my Co op is £1.99. A 500g pack of mince is £3.50, (sometimes on promotion of 2 for £5).
I buy yellow stickered items as I walk there at 7pm for that purpose.
A pack of decent sausages will make toad in the hole but still, with peas and other ingredients it makes more than a £2.50 hole in that £5 2 meal budget, yet cheap processed crap full of fat and salt doesn't.

We ALL know that the cheapest foods are highly processed carbs filled with mechancially extracted meat: nuggets, burgers, twizzlers. And they are what are 'on promotion' for £5. not lean meat, fruit or veg. Yes folk can batch cook hot veggie meals cheaply but not everyone has time, skills, access to ingredients, equipment etc.

@Mumtumwobble is right and those sources she quotes are correct.
It's about feeding hungry kids: 2.4m plus, in the 6th richest nation.

I did a quick search to see what £5 can get you for breakfast and or lunch and the choices are very limited for relatively healthy options.
I’ve never been to Aldi or Lidl, Co op , so have no idea on how affordable items like eggs , milk , sliced bread , sandwich fillers , fruits etc are but even at places like Tesco it still doesn’t cover a huge selection,
You can buy potatoes , baked beans, rice, lentils but then just how long can you serve them before kids get bored? Not to mention how very little nutritional value they have. so it’s no wonder low income families buy frozen processed meals , 🤷🏼‍♀️.
As someone mentioned upthread School meals might be the only hot meal these kids eat.

Did you look at bag of value range carrots? Apples? Broccoli?

Value tins of tuna
Big bags of rice

You have to get to the place that sells the value products and be able to afford the power to cook them...

@queenofarles

I did a quick search to see what £5 can get you for breakfast and or lunch and the choices are very limited for relatively healthy options. I’ve never been to Aldi or Lidl, Co op , so have no idea on how affordable items like eggs , milk , sliced bread , sandwich fillers , fruits etc are but even at places like Tesco it still doesn’t cover a huge selection, You can buy potatoes , baked beans, rice, lentils but then just how long can you serve them before kids get bored? Not to mention how very little nutritional value they have. so it’s no wonder low income families buy frozen processed meals , 🤷🏼‍♀️. As someone mentioned upthread School meals might be the only hot meal these kids eat.

The cost to cook a healthy, from scratch tea is often more too in terms of gas and electricity. If money is tight there may not be any spare for a prepaid meter.

X post with wankerchief (great name btw!)

It is good news and shame on all the Tories who tried to justify denying FSM a couple of weeks ago. In the midst of a pandemic they took the time to flick the Vs at hungry children and their parents.

ladywithlapdog - i dont imagine most tories did that....maybe at the ones that prioritised their own needs above their kids

Jroseforever yes these are all cheap ,

But we usually need other pricier ingredients to cook cheap items , even the simplest dishes like chickpea curry or beans and eggs require so many ingredients like herbs, spices , dairy , veggies, oils.
It’s not just the cost of chickpeas , eggs , rice and beans.!

It’s so complex and there are many socioeconomic factors to take into consideration.

www.indy100.com/article/tory-mps-voted-against-free-school-meals-commons-marcus-rashford-9723212 Here they are @dreamingofsun here’s the list so you can High-five them ☹️ You’re obviously finding so many excuses for despicable behaviour. Enjoy your evening and dream of sun.

lady - if you had read my original post you will have found that i was in agreement to helping kids that were starving. its not their fault they dont have parents who can feed them.

In principle though it should be a parents job to bring up their kids. If they arent able to do this then i think the root problems need to be addressed rather than just slinging money at a problem. And providing more money which may actually not be spent on healthy food

Sorry but you just sounded so defensive. Good, work out a solution. But what do you do till then? Do you know how long the Tories have been in charge? 10 long fucking years. Enough time to educate a teenager who then becomes a parent. They haven’t done it because they needed to stuff their own pockets. So what will you do until this education happens? Two weeks ago they thought it was terrible and voted against it. Now they’ve found 150 billion for quantitative easing (printing money). Is that not throwing money at a problem?

But yes, I’m all ears for your root problem solution. Meanwhile have a look at that long list of Tory names and be disgusted.

Ffs it's not just the cost of the food that matters it's the cost of making the food (gas/electric) and having the resources to make it as well (kitchen equipment). Its not as simple as just buy healthy foods. My sister is low income, her nearest supermarket is a coop. It's small and expensive. But to get to a cheaper supermarket it would cost her 6 quid on the bus. She is on a prepayment meter for her energy which is expensive and she is paying off debt on it. She works tw but at the end of the month she is lucky when she can put 30 quid away for her sons birthday/xmas presents and for emergencies. It's hard feeding kids healthy food on very little money.

ginny - i live is a different world, so forgive the potentially stupid questions....so she cant work longer hours, get a better paid job, get the father to pay more? I'm guessing she doesnt have expensive habits....drinking, smoking, gabling etc?

The problem with a lot of families is they lack the knowledge, confidence and equipment to make low cost, healthy meals. I can knock a pan of veggie soup up, 6 good portions probably for about £3. Not every family have the skills to make even soup. And if you have a fiver, risking £3 of it on something that might not be nice, that the kids might not eat, that you might not have got a blender to finish it off with, you aren't going to risk it.

A full chicken for roasting is about £3.50. A bag of 50 nuggets os about £2. One meal for 4 vs 2 meals for 4. Can chuck frozen chips and beans with the nuggets, roast chicken usually has other things. Plus takes 90 mins to cook vs 15 to 20 mins. When you are on prepayment meters that all matters.

And it's not just cash poor, working parents often struggle for time as well. Hungry, narky kids who have been in school all day then possibly after school club just need food in their bellies quickly.

My sister works 35 hours a week, have you tried getting an absent father to pay child support? She doesnt smoke or drink, or gamble. She doesn't go on holidays, she doesnt have any expensive habits tbh. Obv you don't want to believe that poor people sometimes can't help being poor. Her ex left her with a baby and shit loads of debt but obv she should just work harder right?

The government are a total shambles, a total embarrassment.

I couldn’t possibly begin to imagine what it feels like knowing that you have so little to feed your family, the toll on your mental and physical health can be a lot, I doubt anyone would be all chirpy and creative with recipes.

Anyone watched the documentary about St.Anns Slums? It’s really old , late 60s I think , still so relevant. It was this documentary that made look further into poverty wage, sometimes you can’t get out of poverty.

call me naive but one thing i dont understand is why the government cant get money from absent fathers and give to the mothers/other parent. If it can get tax then surely they could follow the same sort of process to get child support?

I don’t think there’s anything democratic about an over paid footballer getting his own way.
If it was you or I do you think it would be going ahead? Money talks.

Well I am glad about this overpaid footballer getting his own way, as it means that many children will not go hungry in the holidays @Cocopogo!