Free school meals and summer holidays

[McNewPants2013]

I was thinking about this today.

I will have an extra £10 per week dude to not paying for school meals, but if people are entitled to FSM I can see many families struggling to provide these extra meals at home.

Do you think that school canteens should open or the parents get extra money to cover the shortfall.

[Bogeyface]

I should also add that poor childhood nutrition is a major indicator of poor health in later life. I assume that all of you "let them eat cake"ers are happy for your children to pay higher taxes to support an NHS (lets pray it still exists) to treat their underfed peers for chronic conditions that you stood back and let happen.

[SaucyJack]

Plenty of people do live within walking distance of a 'big four' supermarket. We have three round here for starters.

[Bogeyface]

No Saucy you are just being offensive. And I will happily stand up as the person who reported your vile post.

[Bogeyface]

Yes SJ and plenty dont, far more than do in fact. But hey, dont let the facts stand in the way of being a bigot.

[EeTraceyluv]

madlizzy the rise in the cost of living has also fucked up a hell of a lot of people who work.

[tethersend]

Saucy, your comment to property was below the belt.

Perhaps you should write in Mandarin if would mean that you could engage in the debate without recourse to personal insults.

[SaucyJack]

How exactly am I a bigot? As I've already mentioned, I was on benefits for five whole years. In precisely what shape or form does me talking about my own experiences make me prejudiced or intolerant?

[GoodTouchBadTouch]

"Some of you need to stop with all the middle class hand wringing"

This^ You love it. Makes you feel all benevolent-lady-of-the-manor.

[SaucyJack]

But it was fine for her to call me fucking stupid and a deluded twat. Right then.

[TheMagicKeyCanFuckOff]

My kids are on FSM (I am working and so is my eldest teen but that's for herself of course. But we can't manage it) and there's a canteen thing at school, it's like one of one holiday camps, but only lunch and three times a week, breakfast, for FSM kids, funded by a charity. Last year it was great.

[roseel]

My mother just didn't feed us lunch at all in the summer holidays. We'd suffered bankruptcy, lost property and income, and were temporarily reduced to benefits and FSM too. We received occasional food parcels from relations and I can remember always feeling hungry.

[JugglingFromHereToThere]

I think it's not just the cost, many families will feel the pressure of having to provide all meals for children for 6 weeks without any support. My DCs always have school dinners and I find that a significant help in providing well for them & giving them a good diet overall.

[propertyNIGHTmareBEFOREXMAS]

Saucy, I am not sure why you don't want to accept that some children will not eat adequately this summer. I am not sure why you think that a little child having one filling meal a day is some sort of nice perk. Adequate nutrition is pretty essential and a basic human right to my mind.

[AudrinaAdare]

DH and I are both carers as of three months ago. He worked up until DC1's needs changed and her condition became severe. It is going to cost more in the summer, yes. Not as much as it would in the winter when the children tend to eat more and hang around at home.

We haven't had much time to plan, but it just is, like Christmas. You know when it's coming up, it's the same time every year. More manageable if you aren't paying for heating for just six weeks.

[celestialbows]

SaucyJack I just wanted to say I love your nickname, if I'd thought of it I'd have used it myself. One of my favourite songs despite the macabre subject matter, it always gives me a fit of the giggles

[HappyDoll]

I think it's not just the cost, many families will feel the pressure of having to provide all meals for children for 6 weeks without any support.

What??? Don't you think about that when you decide to have a baby? I thought it was a given that I was going to have to ensure this person was fed 3 times a day until a certain age?

[AudrinaAdare]

Posted too soon -

Or, if you are our old neighbours you can have bbq's three times a week and new tattoos, clothes and hairstyles all summer and have the entire street stink of weed while whinging that your children don't get a free lunch and it's so hard to manage.

Not that that is the fault of the children but when everything which isn't nailed down is stolen and your child is mugged outside the front door for ice-cream money it's hard to sympathise with the so-called adults.

[Chickensarmpit]

I'll be getting the supermarkets to deliver my food. You get money off your shopping on the first go. That'll help lots.

[GoodTouchBadTouch]

"I think it's not just the cost, many families will feel the pressure of having to provide all meals for children for 6 weeks without any support"

What??? Support with setting the table? Or heating up the ravioli?

You people get so excited about feeding the poor, with your food parcels and meal tents... you actually want to spoon feed them personally now?

[JakeBullet]

It's a difficult one.

My son gets FSM, or at least he is entitled to them. I claim for them simply because I kbow the school geys a premium for children on FSM.

However, DS is autistic and so refuses said FSM and takes a packef lunch. I will notice no difference in foid costs at all.

[Bogeyface]

Saucy, I am not sure why you don't want to accept that some children will not eat adequately this summer. I am not sure why you think that a little child having one filling meal a day is some sort of nice perk. Adequate nutrition is pretty essential and a basic human right to my mind.

This

And to those saying "oh they just cant budget" or "oh they spend all their money on tatoos and weed" SO WHAT?!

Should a child in the 6th richest country in the world go hungry? That is the question here. Whether or not you agree with what their parents spend their money on, can you honestly say that you are happy to send money to Comic Relief to feed starving African children, or street children in South America, but will stand by and watch as a child in YOUR town, maybe even on YOUR street, goes hungry? For the sake £1? Really?

[propertyNIGHTmareBEFOREXMAS]

FSM are not about adults though, they are entirely about directly assisting children. Yes the adult having three bbqs a week might well be a dick but plenty of benefit dependant parents can't or won't prioritise child welfare. fSM provide a safety net. A net that does catch children who would otherwise be in free fall.

[freemanbatch]

I thought FSM were the one thing nobody could complain about. The parents financial circumstances are nothing to do with the child and they deserve to be fed simply because they are human beings.

I have always wondered how children who only had a slice of toast for tea were supposed to survive the holidays from school, it must be a terrible thing for the children to face.

Happy holidays I don't think!!

[JugglingFromHereToThere]

I've been on Mumsnet long enough to not be surprised by your response HappyDoll Thing is it's not just about my own experiences, but I can look at my own experience - of feeling slightly daunted by the forthcoming 6 week holiday - and see that others may find it even harder.

A bit like the thread I started last week about effort marks where I mentioned the ones my DS and DD have been given.
But someone always has to make it just about your personal experience don't they ? And I thought it was a discussion forum

• various expressions to illustrate thoughts on this

[Bogeyface]

Yes, for a minimum spend chickens, usually £40 so no good if your budget is £20 really is it?