Free school meals - WHY

[MrsSpringfield]

Could anyone help me articulate an argument as to why children from lower income families should receive a free school meal 5 days a week.
Why it is beneficial?

There is a mum on my class watsapp group, from another country originally, who is basically saying they shouldn't provide kids with FSM and that it's not a high priority. (The school have temporarily stopped serving food. It's a primary school. ) She says where she's from they don't do it and they shouldn't do it here either.

I am so inarticulate I don't dare respond in my own words... but noone else has said anything and I feel I ought to stand up for FSM!!

@sausagedoglove snap

OP I do understand your want to engage. But people like this are ignorant.

I spend £20 a week on just lunches for my 2 non baby children. I get up early to prepare it, chop fresh fruit, make sandwhiches etc. I keep that food in a fridge and I cook any elements that need cooking with my paid for energy in my oven. I can do this because I have the time, the practical resources (house, oven, fridge, transport to buy the food) and the money. Is it really so hard for her to understand that there are so many things there that people could lack access to?

And of course there is a small proportion of children with feckless or neglectful parents whose children will go unfed regardless :(

I think you have to be incredibly naive, sheltered or ignorant of the realities many people in our country face in order to assume that 100% of parents can manage to provide 100% of school meals, but that is the sad truth.

"Are you jealous of a child getting to eat for free then when your child doesn't because you can afford to buy food instead of making a decision between food or heating?"

I can't believe that grown adults are jealous of a young child being fed. Ask her as well if she'd like workhouses to be brought back 🙄

I wouldn't argue with stupid, it's not worth it. Certainly not on a class WhatsApp. Ours tends to go tumbleweed when people spout shite.

Year I thought they did in Ireland? www.irishpost.com/news/free-school-meals-ireland-187694

In some places with no free school meals, the school provides food for kids that come empty-handed, but it probably comes out of the teachers' or headteacher's own pockets. So instead of being paid for by the taxpayer and the richest pay most as a %, it's paid for by lower wage teachers out of their after-tax income which I think is both unfair and economically inefficient.

Because children are at school from 9-3:30. Its a long day. Having decent food is vital for their development and learning!
Maybe your friend is in a country where children go home for lunch!?

I wouldn’t say anything. The fact that no one else has tells you all you need to know. The woman is a fool.

www.gov.uk/government/publications/evaluation-of-the-free-school-meals-pilot-impact-report

Here is some research. Free school meals improved attainment in younger pupils and this was more pronounced in those from lower income backgrounds

If you really want to reply I would deliberately misunderstand her and just say something like,

"Awh it's a shame [home country] doesn't have FSM, they work really well here and they make sure any kid who needs it gets fed indiscriminately"

And if she continues to reply with her ranty bullshit about parents I would say something like "Oh but they're still great because it's obviously not the children's fault if they don't get fed! [Dickhead mum], we could debate til the cows come home about how parents should feed their kids but the reality is some don't, that's why FSM are so great because they're about helping the children and not the parents :) xx

It is whatsapp after all.

I'd further advise to just leave the damn group, a schoop mum group sounds like some seventh circle if hell shit 😅

Just get her told OP.

You're going to make yourself look like a complete dick if she's on Mumsnet.

How do I politely/ articulately say not all kids get fed at home

"Not all kids get fed at home".

It is out of the control of vulnerable children to source their own food. This year people may have been thrown into more financial hardship than they have experienced before, meaning more children are facing food poverty and potentially malnutrition. As a society we should help struggling children within it.

Something quite cutting would be ideal?
Just ask her if she suddenly lost her income whether she would choose to keep paying the bills to keep a roof over their heads or whether the money would go on feeding her family?

On second thought it actually just sounds like spiteful insecure posturing on her part. All this "look how eeeeaaassy it is" just sounds like her trying to let everyone know what a great parent she is and how she can't even contemplate some parents would struggle with such a basic thing

Why not?
We have lunch at work.
Don't justify it ask her to.

Xiaoxiong those meals are not available in normal schools (the vast majority), only in the Deis schools, in exceptionally deprived areas. The normal schools don't have kitchens or anywhere to serve food.

It’s never a child’s fault that there isn’t a hot meal for them at home.

Lots of different people, different family situations - that is quite frankly none of this lady business to pass judgement on.

Just be glad you live in a society that as a whole fully support warm food in a hungry child.

Could someone post something about ACES? I've just finished my lunch break so haven't got time to provide a very simple cartoon, I'm sure one must exist.

Year, ah, TIL. So if a child arrives to school with no sandwich - they just don't eat that day at all? Or is it like my cousin in the USA who is a teacher and feeds those kids out of her own pocket.

Just post a photo of tumbleweed to point out that nobody else is speaking up. Then leave the group and never rejoin, I shudder in horror at being forced to chat with school parents in a group forum like that. It will only ever lead to dramatic posturing and competitive parenting.

If you want to continue to be involved then I agree with PPs who say to turn the question around on her..."so just to get this clear, you're saying when children's parents are unable to feed them we should let them go hungry, did I read you correctly?" Let her justify her batshit ramblings and dig herself into an even deeper hole.

I agree though OP, don't respond, don't give it any oxygen. Class Whatsapps are for finding lost jumpers and making sure people remember to bring a pound for mufti day, not for having political discussions!

Only families on extremely low incomes qualify for FSM. FSM is part of the package of benefits that are given to these families (it's not an added bonus, but part of the calculation of the minimum that needs to be provided). There are lots of reasons that this is given as a school dinner rather than a extra cash- including to ensure that children get at least one balanced meal each day if their families for whatever reason can't or don't provide it. The benefit to society is that children are better behaved in school if they are well fed, able to concentrate on school work better (and therefore more likely to be able to get a good job in later life), less likely to be ill (and therefore a cost to the NHS). The benefit to families is that even if they have no cooking facilities/run out of food/need to spend their money on other essentials they know their child has one good meal. The benefit to children from chaotic families is even if their parents don't prioritise their needs they will not be hungry all week. Whatever your views on the benefit system, adults who can't afford to feed their families or parents who spend their money on other things it is never the child's fault that they need FSM.

I agree though OP, don't respond, don't give it any oxygen. Class Whatsapps are for finding lost jumpers and making sure people remember to bring a pound for mufti day, not for having political discussions!

I totally agree- but if there is someone using the group to make comments about FSM there may well be people claiming FSM who are made to feel uncomfortable. Perhaps one answer is to say something along the lines of 'I don't think the class Whatsapp group is the place for political discussions but I disagree entirely with the comments you are making'

I think @CloudyVanilla has a good reply. I generally don't argue with stupid but people who want to deny children getting one balanced meal a day need to be dealt with. My dh is on a high income and the fact that we can give our children everything they need makes me so grateful. I hate to think of other children who can't even have the basics. Perhaps their parents work their socks off but earn low incomes or their parents are feckless scroungers. I don't care. Every child has a right to good nutrition.

The reason school meals are free is because whilst we are all more than aware how easy and cheap it is to make a nutritional packed lunch. Some poor children have parents who prioritise drink or drugs over feeding their children and it's the only meal they get each day and you cant learn when you are hungry. That is just one issue there is many more such as single mothers affording to pay all the bill's and childcare who would choose to feed their child and not eat themselves if they had to choose and that school meal each day allows the mother to feed herself.

*not affording/struggling to pay

I actually think a nutritious packed lunch that your average child will actually eat isn't easy. Moreover a hot dinner is more satisfying especially in the cold weather. It may be the only hot meal some children get.

That woman expects too much from people. People struggle, people don't know what they're doing, esp right now. She needs to show some compassion.
It would annoy the hell out of me that she said that people from her own country don't have it.
Just because people look like they are managing with less, that they are holding up doesn't mean to say it's true. The media is bad for this.