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 - you forgot the workhouse.

Actually yes I will walk away - we all have our own issues in this life, some of ua dont have time or energy to be worrying about other people

That is very clear president- thankfulyy some of us do take the time yo worry about others

Annie, aren't you a reception teacher?

No Year 3 now.

She is, thanks.

Ah annie so if a 7 yr old was in your class, clearly underfed, loved but underfed, you would do what?

I havent had a personal dig at anyone on here - do you really need to resort to that?

Errr....uhhmmm....yep :)

Sorry I left the thread, will read later but my dd is unwell. She is asleep ATM so I didn't want to start a thread and run.

I give them breakfast. Make sure they have a snack at playtime and one before they go home.
I haven't for minute said that children should not get FSM but that their own parents should look after their own children's needs before theirs.
I also said that this does not apply to all parents if FS m children just those that spend the money they do have on luxuries rather than necessities.
I see it every day and it makes my blood boil. Children who come to me hungry and unkempt while their parents talk on their iPhones smoking 40 a day.

Okay well that shows the quality of the debate that people can't disagree with each other without it degenerating into that.

Annie no one is disagreeing that their parents should look after them properly. The question is, what if they dont? SHould the child go hungry as a punishment to parents who dont give a toss?

No of course not and I have no solution. I just know it makes me so angry and there must be a way, some way to force these parents to wake up to their responsibilities instead of doing it all for them. And again this is not aimed at all FSM parents just those that see it as a given that someone else will feed their children.

But there isnt another solution. The government, the Daily Fail, The Sun et al all try to make examples of feckless parents, but does it change anything? No. All it does it turn the tide of hatred against anyone on benefits.

annie I totally agree with you

Bogeyface While I do agree with you that children should not be penalised, what can be done to incentivise these feckless parents? Thowing money at providing for their children is not going to make them reaponsible for their actions so what would you suggest?

If parents aren't feeding their kids, you read them the riot act and make sure their kids are fed for the moment. If they do it again, you give them a final warning and make sure their kids are fed for the moment. If they do it again, you take the kids from them.

timid No one is suggesting giving them more money, it has already been agreed that that could be misappropriated, but schemes that run along the same lines as FSM could work. Schemes where the food is put straight into the bellies of a hungry child via holiday kitchens. A feckless parent would positively embrace their child being off their hands for an hour and getting fed, a non feckless parent would just appreciate their child getting the meal.

Tabitha what you say is a good theory, but where are these children to go after they are removed from the parents? As has already been said, there are not enough foster carers and it costs far more to keep a child in "care" than it would to provide them with one good meal a day.

And a further Q tabitha how would you identify every child that isnt being fed properly?

It's not such a weird idea. I'm in the us and in new York city they have a summer feeding program run by the dept of education
www.opt-osfns.org/schoolfood/sch_search/SummerMeals.aspx

It's open to everyone as well. I took my dds swimming and was most surprised to be offered a sandwich when we were done!

If they can do it in the us where they hate spending tax dollars, they can do it in the uk!

I am saddened by the hostility on this thread. I live in a very poor neighbourhood. I know there are hungry children living in my area. The neighbourhood school offers free breakfast and free lunch for all lower grades. It is a wonderful asset. I see many children taking advantage of this service. I don't know all their family circumstances. I don't know how their parents choose to spend their income. I honestly do not care. Venom directed towards anyone for their poverty status is abhorrent. I think it says much about the person writing these statements. It is evil and horribly wrong that any child suffers from hunger. Placing blame is not helpful and shows a decided lack of compassion.

I am in the US too. The free breakfast and lunch program is available year round here. Many children would struggle with hunger if they were to remove this service.

Actually, there is a precedent for this. In the 1950s and 1960s one of the local schools in SE London used to open every day during the summer holidays to provide school dinners for those children who had them during term time. It was really used as the children would not have had a meal otherwise. For the same reason these children were never absent from school.

It's heart breaking to think we're 50 odd years on and nothing has changed.....