It's a brexit one...

[kumbyah]

I've just read that the government have asked schools to state how they will ensure they have enough food for school lunches if there is a no deal on 31st October?
Now I haven't been one to overly worry about brexit and it's effects but this in itself is kind of worrying isn't it? Aibu to think this could really be the case and aibu to be shocked by this?

Also, realistically how will it work feeding your own DC?

You can't very well send in packed lunches with a few DC whose parents have planned ahead, and have the hundreds of other children with nothing.

Which means, what? You go and collect your DC to take them home to eat? not doable for working parents and also indicates to everyone else that you have a stockpile....

It's just utterly unbearable that we are having to think like this.

Lentil soup till it is coming out of her ears, sadly.

It's common sense a year ago, 6 months max. Why is it coming now? Where is everyone meant to get everything from at such short notice? There should have been clear, concise guidelines for EVERYONE released well in advance. But no, they didn't because that would be scaremongering. None of it has been secret information or particularly difficult to find out. But the majority of people just don't find anything out until it is front page news because that is how it is. So fuming about it all.

I'm a working parent.

It's continuity planning. All industries are being asked to highlight any potential risks or issues and put plans in place to mitigate against them (if possible). It's just common sense really. If there is likely to be delays in getting food into the country, the company's who supply food to schools need a plan in place for how they'll manage this.

6 weeks before BREXIT?! and what exactly are they meant to do? I fthe food isn't coming into the country they can hardly charter planes to go and pick up food for school dinners...

So if you're a working parent how does your DD eat at lunchtime if the school doesn't provide anything?

You send a packed lunch? What are the chances of her getting to eat it if even half of the other children have nothing?

It'll be fine. They can just send the kids out to scavenge for food round the woods or a bin. They won't need an education as there won't be many jobs left anyway!

FWIW I'm a researcher and DH works in food retail supply chains so we have been really into this stuff since 2016. I've been preparing in many different ways for my own household but even members of my own wider family will not listen at all and all have heads buried in the sand still. Grrrrr

@CroissantsAtDawn , if it gets that bad, I will have to stop work and home school her. I assume contingency plans at the school but I am thinking worst case scenarios if there are no contingency plans or they don't work.
I'm a general prepper, it's not a weird concept to me. Just a shit one.
Dd has rather sweetly said that she will help a pal that is hungry. After I told her to keep quiet about what we have.
It's fucking shit that we even have to think of this.

I'm not even in the UK and this makes me so angry. I know DC can go without food for hours at school (my fussy DS eats nothing between breakfast at 7.30am and snack at 4.30pm) but my goodness does he make up for it at home!

And there are thousands of children who won't have lots of food at home to stock up on.

I live in a massive Leave area although, according to dd, the general view amongst the school kids (if they talk about it) is against Brexit.

Bellini I've seen your superbly calm posts many time on the Brexit threads and seriously, I think you do a fantastic job helping people prepare (i have sent yours and others' advice to my UK based family) .

I just think it's shit that this is a topic.

Now repeat the exercise for all of the other institutions whose users rely on the catering supply chain for food - hospitals, care homes, prisons etc. - and the scale of the potential problem becomes frightening.

There was a recent report on local TV from one of the major catering supplies companies where the director was basically saying that they have had no guidance from the government, that they didn't have the warehouse capacity to stock 10-12 weeks worth of food (nor the money to pay for this) as it would mean quadrupling their stock. Nor could they make extra deliveries to hospitals and schools, because these didn't have the storage space, freezers or the money required in order to stockpile.

Then there is the question that is relevant for everyone, families as well as institutions - what do you eat once the stockpile has been eaten?

@CroissantsAtDawn , I get pretty bloody cross and sweary over Brexit stuff.
Compromise. Save GFA if we have to leave. Then all this stupid shit is dialled down and I only have to worry about price rises not actual availability of stuff.

Bellini I've seen your superbly calm posts many time on the Brexit threads and seriously, I think you do a fantastic job helping people prepare

Yep, very well said

Thank you both. I hope people have found it helpful. They can ignore my sweariness

There are people up and down the country that have only just woken up and started seriously thinking about what contingencies might be needed. And not just small private companies, but large public sector ones. There just wasn't the belief that it would actually happen/it was all Project Fear. I've had an uphill battle in my organisation to get proper contingencies in place as my assessment was dismissed as doom mongering. Now they are all starting to worry- not least as we have finally got some advice from someone who knows this stuff very well--.

Luckily I ignored the hoots of derision and cracked on with putting things in place where I could. So we aren't starting from scratch, but we are nowhere near where we should be or where the public would expect us to be. Knowing what has gone on in my area, I'm very worried that what is being done nationwide is too little, too late.

I'm just waiting for someone to come along and mention the Millenium Bug...

The thing is; if the Tories have starving kids, people dying as a result of medicine shortages because of Brexit they will be hauled over the coals for an entire generation.

I doubt it - look how people have been dying of cancer while being told they are fit for work and people keep voting fucking Tory. There is seemingly nothing that would prevent some people voting Tory.

I think we have a couple of weeks worth (another thanks to Belini!) but to pp asking what we do when that's gone... Good question. I lack a smallholding with hens and goats and a veg garden. My hope is that once the initial halt, the ports will slowly start to move stuff through. I still think there will be queuing and panic buying but at least hopefully we'll miss the initial wave. Luckily both DH and I can work from home and walk to most places. I am currently topping up on lots of medications that are over the counter as I dread the DC being ill and there being no supplies.

I think a lot of people now are really realizing that due to Brexit this winter is going to be really really hard. A lot of people will go hungry

Inclined to agree with you @TipseyTorvey (and not just because you thanked me ). I also think We will get a new normal once the first rubbishness has passed.
We sooooo need to avoid No Deal.

bellini you got me from fantasising about prepping to actually prepping.
For that I’m forever grateful.

@onalongsabbatical You're welcome.

One of the wealthiest countries on the planet and we're talking about not having enough food to feed our children and people dying from lack of medication it's absolutely fucking bat shit crazy and it's totally self inflicted, I'm so angry that this is being imposed on me and my family just because some hedge funders found an easy way to make money, and the gullible idiots who voted for it.