Free school meals

[mutznutz]

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?

well = it was the fact that exH and I had been on our knees and working poor that stopped me claiming initially "we managed without them then".

Though tbh main reason we ended up where did finaincally was because exH was too fucking proud to claim help (TC's and council tax benefit) when we were entitled to it and desperately needed it. Something he's still paying for now 6yrs on, and we suffer the knock on effects of.

There is absolutely nothing to be "proud" of about not claiming when you're entitled (and need it). There is much more shame in walking into the school office and asking for a form for the free school meals because you're struggling to give them at the very least a healthy, and occasionally varied lunch.

That's where I'm going wrong then! I forgot, poor people should be slowly bred out.

No norweigan, I think they should get free school meals. It was the OP MutzNuzt who said that

Unfortunately I agree that many children don't get fed adequately at home and eating healthily can be more expensive/involve more effort.

It's not so much the free school meals that bothers me it's the price of school meals in the first place - I feed myself lunch every day for about a pound and I'm an adult not buying stuff in bulk so why are school meals so expensive?

I used to run a council backed playscheme in a deprived area. Social services used to pay for lots of the children to attend. They had to bring their own packed lunches, but sometimes children would turn up with one packet of biscuits between three siblings. For lunch.
After chatting to the social workers, we then made sandwiches for them every day.
A lot of the time, it's not even about money, it's about priorities. This particular mother would be smoking when she collected the children (yes, that's another story!) so could clearly afford money for her cigarettes, but just couldn't be arsed to spend time/money making sure her children ate properly.
Nutrition and home economics should be taught in school to everyone. Some parents had the view that McDonalds was a hot meal, so that's ok.

Lurkey, you are being very naive, some people are shit parents! Some people don't look after their kids properly!

Out of the mouth of babes takes on a whole knew meaning

How do you know these parents don't love their children though? There may be any number of reasons why they are not providing adequately for their children, and I think it's uncharitable to suggest they don't deserve to have their kids.

Anyway, I shall be back later cos this is an interesting discussion. I need to go and walk my dog before he destroys the house.

I disagree with the op. I think free school meals should be in place for poor families.
but not for everyone.

I think that free school meals are a really sensible way to try to make sure that the poorest children definitely get one decent meal a day. Sure, some children who don't need them will get them, but overall I suspect its a pretty cheap way to catch those most in need.

What I think is sad is that attitudes like the OPs mean that a lot of people who would be eligible won't claim them. As well as the children potentially missing out, some school funding is linked to numbers getting free school meals, it can end up cutting school funding if people don't want to claim.

At least, I know that is the case in Wales, because dd's school sent round a letter asking people to claim if they were eligible, even if they weren't then going to take up the dinners, as the school was missing out on funding.

I think all school meals should be free and high quality. £10 a week (£11.30 here) doesn't seem alot, but when it becomes 30-40 a week for 3-4 children, I can imagine it would be a struggle. It creates a them and us situation IMO. Although I think most kids in DSs class have packed. I'm too lazy so pay the £11.30 + it means he only has a light supper in the evenings.

I absolutely think that FSM should remain in place. Wether we like to agree with it or not, the fact of the matter is that it is a good way of ensuring that children from impoverished backgrounds get a proper meal. I think it is the least we can do to ensure those that may not be cared for properly are getting some food that day. We need to continue to care for our children, building a good future for us all surely begins with giving all children the best start in life we can.

I have worked in schools in very deprived areas and in some cases the free school meal was the only meal the child was given.
Yes benefits are given but it is very hard for the council to ensure that that money goes to the child. Some parents have frightening priorities and will put their own needs before the child's.
By providing the free school meal they get the food straight to the child without the risk of it going elsewhere.
The council do send home carers out to families that are struggling to make sure the children are washed, given beds, in a safe environment but obviously this is a very expensive service and they need to know the child is at risk.
They can bypass the risk of not knowing the child is at such extreme risk and the expense of sending out a carer to feed them by providing the meal at school.

You know whenever I read one of these threads talking about taking things away from children in poor families I think of that story of the mum in Bristol here

Very few families qualify for school meals.

For some families free school meals take away a little of the burden if all they can afford to feed them in the evening is beans on toast at least they know that they have had a decent meal at school.

I cannot believe that a decent person would suggest scrapping free meals which are only available to the poorest in society. What next? Bring back the workhouse?

sorry memoo! it is your fault for having a name that starts with the same letter as mutz. just goes to show the level of sleep deprivation im experiencing when i dont read past the first letter of peoples screen names!

my apologies :)

I think if you put children at the centre of your motivation, then free school meals need to stay. In fact, they need to be extended.

It is easy and natural to think 'why should I feed their child with my taxes, they have their benefits/wage to do it, they should do it, it is their child after all'.

However be under no illusions, for many children their free school meal is their only chance to bump into hot food that has any quality at all. Now I care about that child, I am sad and sorry their parents can't deliver that meal for whatever reason. I will pay for their school dinner, and it costs me in a big way to do so. I will do it though, because I believe children should not suffer because of their circumstances.

Of course their parents should provide a hot meal of great quality, but for many children they can't or won't. So the Welfare State fills in this gap, which is what it is there for, why it was created and, in my honest view, what the world wars were fought for. Born out of an age when the country really thought 'right, lets run a tight ship and look out for each other and never go back to those dark days'

I feel strongly about this. I'd love to say we could get rid od free school meals and several other safety nets, and simply address the deep issues. In reality, that will take generations/forever and doesn't help children who are hungry right now. I remember being hungry at school, and praying there would be seconds [about once a month] and I can tell you it is hard.

We got a letter like that, saying at least claim, or something like that if you can.

yes I smoke - I spend £11 a week on baccy. When I looked at my receipts for the shopping for the school holidays is cost me an awful lot more than £11 a week.

(and no tax payers don't pay for my baccy - I take that money out of my "pocket money" I get from church for being the organist - always have done - it was the only bit of money that was "mine" when exH and I were still together and I still try and keep it separate now - once I work the equivalent of 5 hours a week and get to keep 3/4 of what they pay me - the rest is duducted from my benefits).

Roll on later this year when DS3 starts school and I (hopefully!) fine work - not only do I get to keep all of my church money - but I won't be on IS anymore, and won't be claiming free school meals anymore. I'd love to say "when I'm not on benefits anymore" - but that's sadly not going to be case

Agree with auntyfash - there may be many reasons why they aren't providing their children with adequate food.

Can you imagine being stuck with an extremely fussy eater when you have very little money to feed that child?

I remember when I was at school (and had FSM) there were children that used to come to school filthy and smelly and starving hungry - there were a couple of teachers who used to wash them and give them breakfast. They weren't like this becasue their parents didn't love them.

Speaking as a parent who pays for my DCs to have a hot meal at school I'm all in favour of free school meals - it means that mine get school meals at a cheaper price than they would otherwise do (because of economies of scale) and it means that mine will sit down and eat a proper meal with their friends, rather than nagging me to produce packed lunches (which I'd rather not do) and then nagging me again to put Mars Bars in them because "everyone else does it".

Packed lunches are a PITA and usually nutritionally dodgy - I think making sure that poor kids (and middle class kids) get a good cooked lunch on a school day is an entirely reasonable use of my taxes.

I know of children on free meals that get a jam sandwich for dinner when they get home - they wouldn't get any cooked food during the week if not at school - actually there are quite a few kids who don't get fed very well at home, we have a few who we get breakfast in for because they arrive at school starving hungry and unable to concentrate.

I think that the quality of the food provided and the budget for it should go up tbh.

If we are making cuts I think that the generation that got free university, final salary pensions and were able to buy a house on one wage should be contributing a wee bit? Bil has just qualified for winter fuel allowance and he is loaded - its a joke.

I've got two points to make.

The packed lunches that I make for my dcs are crap and the same every day (Jamie Oliver would probably take them away) but it's what my dcs will eat in the time that they are allowed and we have varied, mostly cooked from scrath teas every night. So I do my best. I could probably afford school dinners for them but it would be a waste of money because they wouldn't eat most of them.
I have no objections to kids getting FSM and I actually think that more kids should get them. But going back to what someone said earlier it's the other things that the benefit claimants get, dcs school runs a residential trip for two nights at a council run centre and the FSM kids only had to pay £15 for it, it was £85 for everyone else!

I should add my DS's do get 2 decent meals a day at home on school days - often porridge for breakfast, and healthy food (cooked - as their FSM's are cold packed lunches) for dinner

(we won't talk about the meals I skip to be able to buy better quality ingredients

and lets talk about the amount of typo's in my 12.28 post even less