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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

Free school meals

424 replies

mutznutz · 11/01/2011 11:43

I was just thinking. With so many Government and Council cutbacks, isn't it about time they stopped providing free school meals that cost untold millions of pounds to provide?

I mean we're already given child benefit to help with the cost of our children. Also, as long as you're feeding your child properly at home, what's wrong with providing a fairly inexpensive packed lunch if you can't afford to buy them a hot one? (not that they are particularly 'hot' nowdays)

Plus, if parents cant afford to feed their children when they go to school...how do they manage at weekends and during the 13wks holidays they get per year?

Then there are the parents who earn just above the threshold and cannot afford school meals...their kids would have a packed lunch so why not everyone?

OP posts:

auntyfash · 11/01/2011 12:03

Why would you rather it went to the elderly or housebound? Do you just not like children?

kreecherlivesupstairs · 11/01/2011 12:03

I think that DD will qualify for free school meals when we return to the UK.

BaroqueAroundTheClock · 11/01/2011 12:04

A lot of people that are entitled to claim FSM's don't. Both DS's schools have quite a lot more children "entitled" to FSM's than actually use them.

My CB goes into one big pot - it pays for whatever bill is due out next (or the weeks shopping in some cases depending on when it arrives).

Original poster

mutznutz · 11/01/2011 12:05

Packed lunches are way cheaper than school meals imo. At one time I had 3 kids at school..the lunches would have cost me £120 per month. There's no way their packed lunches came anywhere near that.

OP posts:

iloveyankees · 11/01/2011 12:05

There are children in poverty with the parents working, it works both ways but they don't no help.

There are genuinely poor people out there on benefits but in all honestly I think it's only a small percentage of people who couldn't afford to give them packed lunches imo

Memoo · 11/01/2011 12:06

I'm sure that they already do Mutznutz. The problem is bigger than you would believe in some areas Mutz, honestly when I first started working in a primary school I couldn't believe how poorly some parents look after their children.

Norweigan, not sure why that was directed at me?

MackerelOfFact · 11/01/2011 12:06

Free school meals must be one of the more economic benefits though, surely? They cost pence to make, they cut down the amount of wate, the more meals they make the cheaper each meal works out to be, and vitally, having a nutritious meal inside a child will help them concentrate and learn during the afternoon.

If you want your child to have hot meals but don't qualify for free dinners yet can't afford to pay for them, a Thermos flask costs £4 and will mean your DCs can have hot soup, leftover stew, curry or pasta for lunch. :)

lurkeyishere · 11/01/2011 12:06

I agree with the Mutz and for anyone who says its the only decent meal some children get then sorry but their parents arent fit to be parents

auntyfash · 11/01/2011 12:09

I suppose it depends on what you put into a school lunch, if you're catering for 23 then you can buy multipacks, use up a full pack of ham before it goes off etc.

Anyway, I still think whether it be a cold packed lunch or a hot meal then these ought to be provided free of charge to those who need it.

Why are so many people seemingly uppity about things like this? Why attack the already hardest done to? Why not address the issue of tax evaders etc rather than the working classes?

nagynolonger · 11/01/2011 12:09

I was in the same boat as you once mutznutz,
but I never begrudged those who got FSM.

Free bus passes for well off 60 year olds are much more wasteful of taxpayers money.

Original poster

mutznutz · 11/01/2011 12:09

I'm not sure if soup would be allowed in a lot of primary schools...due to the fact the staff couldn't regulate the temperature...but I don't know that for sure.

OP posts:

Memoo · 11/01/2011 12:10

You're right Lurkey, their parents aren't fit to be parents if they don't feed their children properly but does that mean we should let the children suffer?

Memoo · 11/01/2011 12:11

You'd also be surprised by the number of parents who aren't entitled to free meals who send their children to school with no provision for their lunch. No money/pack up

auntyfash · 11/01/2011 12:12

Not fit to be parents if that's their only hot meal? How charitable of you.

I think we need better education about bringing up kids maybe, and about handling finances and nutrition etc, also tackle full on problems like drugs and alcohol, and offer help and support to those who are struggling.

Original poster

mutznutz · 11/01/2011 12:12

Indeed. I think it's just an area that seems to be overlooked when it comes to necessary cutbacks.

Oh well I'd better go and drag a hot electrical impliment over my pile of clean washing (sorry, can't bring myself to type the 'I' word)

Will check back later. Thanks for all your views though...it's been an interesting debate

OP posts:

LindyHemming · 11/01/2011 12:13

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

auntyfash · 11/01/2011 12:14

There's nowt quite so good as slagging off other parents to make you feel better about your own parenting is there?

Memoo · 11/01/2011 12:14

Honestly until you have experienced it first hand you would never believe the amount of poverty and poor parenting there is out there. Some children live horrible lives at the hands of their parents, its heart breaking.

DurhamDurham · 11/01/2011 12:15

I'm another one who could not afford to pay for my two children to have a hot school meal everyday. There's no way a packed lunch costs anywhere near that much (unless it's filled with pricey Cheese Strings!)
Either the price needs to come down so everyone can afford to pay or it's free for all children.
If children are not being fed at home it is not just down to cost.There are wider implications and these families need to be supported more. However I think this is a very small proportion. I imagine most parents whose children get free school meals would be offended if you were to suggest they weren't being fed at home. Most poor people are not the feckless creatures people make them out to be.

lecce · 11/01/2011 12:15

But their parents are their parents, why should children suffer because their parents either don't care or don't have the basic skills to provide their children with decent meals? We may say they are not fit to be parents but this is getting into very sticky ground - who's to judge who is and isn't fit to be a parent?

In my school there are several parents who don't provide nutritious meals and, in many cases, it is not as simple as "They just don't care."

I agree with whoever said that investing in our children makes good economic sense because it is an investment in their future and the future or our country.

I am very sad that so many people seem to begrudge children a decent meal. I doubt I will be able to afford cooked meals for my 2 when they are at school but I would not resent the fact that children less fortunate than mine get them free. What a nasty attitude

tjacksonpfc · 11/01/2011 12:16

I do agree with free school meals to an extent i had them for a while when i was at school.

However where i dont agree ids where i personally know of people that are getting £400 a week in benefits and still getting the free school meals. A lot of working people dont bring in that much money in a week but still have to provide lunches for there dcs.

I also dont agree with the argumenmt that its the only hot meal in the day that children recieve. In my dcs school thekitchen got closed downb last year so any one that is entitled to fsm gets a packed lunch provided for them. So the hot meal argument falls down then. Plus my dcs only get one hot meal a day and that is in the evening. I would imagine most people only have 1 hot meal pert day.

NorwegianMoon · 11/01/2011 12:16

sorry memoo i wrote that to you about cb because i thought you said why should they get free meals when they get cb to pay for food for the children-did you not?

i must be going mad i do apologise!

auntyfash · 11/01/2011 12:17

It is heartbreaking, but putting the kids into care isn't necessarily the way to make them happier. Even kids who have a shit upbringing love their parents more than anyone in the world, Better to give these parents help and the children help and keep them together unless the child was at risk of something really terrible happening.

ThisIsANiceCage · 11/01/2011 12:18

I think the general argument is we should let the children suffer. They are obviously failed human beings already, if their parents are not successes, so it's important not to waste further resources on them.

lurkeyishere · 11/01/2011 12:18

aunty fash how is it uncharitable of me to think that people might actully have kids to love them and look after them?

I do think there needs to be a better education on bringing up kids
when I went to school in Ireland only 9 years ago we had a social and scientific class it thought us how to eat and live on a budget how to cook, sew, bake and how to care for babies and children. Its helped me cope with living on a tiny budget with 3 kids and a DP to look after.
Ive never heard of any kind of class here in the uk maybe it would be an idea

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