To feel a little bit resentful in paying for school dinners

[sississy]

While other parents have it for free?
Or should I be just grateful I can afford to pay it?

Maybe I am answrin it myself aren't I?

I pay £74 per month for my younger two to have a hot lunch, it feels like a lot when I write the cheque but actually it's a good deal. I had free school meals and it was often the only food I'd have all day as my Mum was broke but also not great at putting her children first so there often wasn't any food.

I would never begrudge anyone free meals and I think you are being VU.

not benefit bashing by stealth then?? Just plain old fashioned benefit bashing.

School meals should be improved generally. Sometimes my DC's come home and they've had a jacket potato, sometimes it's a full roast. Sometimes they have seconds, sometimes there's barely enough to fill a hole in a tooth. And sometimes they have to eat something they call 'death pizza', which is whatever they had yesterday shredded and put on a pizza as a topping. They are secretly thrilled and disgusted by this in equal measure.

£20 a week for 2 kids?
I pay £11.50 per week and my $ year old can't even 'remember' what she ate...

If it is the only thing some children have to eat, than it should be a lot better .

If you are working yet your family income is less than those receiving free school meals, why wouldn't you feel resentful? Perfectly normal reaction, but it's the fault of the government with unfair criteria, not any childs or family's fault. Sad, but that's the way it is.

actually mrs ruffallo, i have a few close friends who i know for a fact regularly dont have a hot meal in the evenings due to finances, friends who are struggling so much they'll call over with their dcs for 'a cuppa' at 4.30pm knowing i'm putting the dinner on and that i'll invite them to stay for it. and no, neither of these friends drive, have secret live-in partners, plasma tvs, 3 foreign holidays a year or are working cash in hand. they are single parents, looking for any work they can find and tolerating the prejudices of people like the OP on a daily basis whilst trying to protect their children from it.

I pay £80 a month for two children, and they are never, ever still full by home time. It makes my blood boil, I may have to start a campaign a la Jamie Oliver.
I have no problem with anyone receiving free school dinners, though.

Driving cars whilst on benefits??? Explain why that is a problem then?

YABVVU. I will never forget going to a friend's house and her quietly saying to me that I would have to call my Mum at 5pm to pick me up as the only person eating that evening was her four year old sister. She, her other sibling and their parents were having a packet of crisps each as that was all they had.

The quality of some school dinners does need improving but that certainly wouldn't be helped if people like you decided not to pay money into the system

Working cash in hand too...... What, all the parents??

IAmBooyhoo
when did I express any prejudice?
i was nearly homeless when I was pregnant and even after dd was born..

I live in inner city London and I don't know anyone who cannot afford to give their children dinner. I am sorry that this situation actually exists, I had no idea.

Anyway, if that is the case then even more reason to make them more substantial.

your comment about these parents on benefits having 3 holidays a year and working cash in hand was quite prejudiced i think. do you honestly believe that of all the families who receive free school meals?

I know we think poverty and children being hungry does not exist but people good at hiding it even if from areas where we do not think probs. Some kids do not get another meal at all in day hot or otherwise and you should be thankful can afford the luxery of choosing what to give our children in winter or otherwise.

the money comes from somewhere
either your taxes - with a tranche taken off for bureaucracy
or direct from your wallet
I cannot see the problem
YABU

Op -what is the alternative? Let them go hungry?

Then they will be badly behaved and disrupt the class. And they wont learn, pass examsn and go on to get jobs and pay taxes. Its not charity, its cost effective

School meals at my daughters school are brilliant. Really varied and healthy. There's always jacket spurs as an alernative. And always a halal AND veggie alternative

How OS there such discrepancy between schools?

My youngest has school dinners £9.50 a week, they are ok actually and i dont mind paying for them at all. why should they be for free?

Our elder 2 do get free school dinners (its included in the fees .. lol)

Yes, specially knowing of people getting benefits and working cash in hand at the same time, driving cars around and going abroad on holidays 3 times a year...yet getting free school dinner.

Don't forget the plasma TV.

Youth groups I see the records for often get the teenagers to cook a communal meal and eat it.
For many it is the ONLY MEAL IN THE WEEK where they sit at a table and eat with a knife and fork
some teenagers genuinely do not know how to slice food

I think all the whingers like the OP in this thread should be sent to live in Ireland for a month. That'd soon shut them up. I really couldn't believe it when I started teaching here in the UK and realised that in a lot of schools parents don't have to buy textbooks, writing books, pens, pencils, art supplies, nothing, everything is supplied for free. In Ireland children are handed a booklist every August that can add up to anywhere between 50 and 100 euros and they are expected to bring all of their equipment to school with them, absolutely nothing is supplied. Often parents are also required to pay for art supplies in a lump sum at the start of the year. I have never heard of a single school in Ireland that provides school meals - it is very much the norm for children to bring their own packed lunch.

Top it off with having to pay at least 50 euros to see the GP and up to 110 euros per month for any medication and it's safe to say that parents in the UK have it bloody easy in comparison to parents in Ireland. It really pisses me off when people here moan and whinge and expect everything to be handed to them on a plate, and begrudge what others are given, when in fact their own lives are so cushy they actually complain about having to pay a tiny amount for a decent meal cooked by someone else for their child.

When all you have to moan about is paying way below the odds for food, your life is pretty shit hot IMO.

Op...... Did you get free school meals as a child?

YABVVU. We pay for school meals and I am very glad children on low incomes get free meals. I have friends who do and am glad for them and have no resentment at all. It isn't their fault they are lone parents as the dad cleared off or that they are disabled etc. The poor are not all feckless you know!! Just be grateful for what you have and that the CHILDREN are being fed! It is about them.