Am I the only person who thinks parents should feed their kids outside of school?

[HalloweenDoughnutAnyone]

Obviously it goes without saying I don't want any child to go hungry. But. Am I the only person who thinks parents should feed their kids outside of school?

Just that really.. it's free school dinners. Not free lunch all year round.

I don't understand why people think the tax payer should be paying even more? Maybe, if you can't afford to cover the basics (food and clothing) you should think twice before having a child?

Or should we extend free school dinners, to cover all the food a child needs inside and outside of school ?

I'm not tarring everyone with the same brush but I know people who rely on free school dinners. But have sky tv, expensive mobile contracts etc

There's a man from our village who is a very, very successful business man. Last year he gave a number of families involved with a charity tv's and laptops.

The frothing over the size of the free tvs by certain people in the village was amazing to watch on various social media sites.

Sterilising now are we,?
What if you are neglectful or abusive but still can't afford to eat?

I'm talking about those who can afford food, but don't feed their kids, abusing them deliberately. I even used the word deliberately in my post. If you can't afford it, that's not deliberately.

But I'd love to know your reasons for why you think that's OK.

@TheFormerPorpentinaScamander

Do non flat screen TVs actually exist anymore?

Nope. Also Sky is a great investment if you’ve no money for any other kind of entertainment or days out.

@RunBackwards I agree with what your saying but at the same time, all the while people wanting to throw money at helping the symptoms,the root cause is being ignored and pushed further down the line for the next generation to deal with..

I am shocked and ashamed by the ignorance and lack of humanity on this thread. Some of the comments are hateful. Particularly shocked that there is so little understanding of the impact of people already on minimum wage being furloughed and made redundant because of the pandemic. I can't imagine what it must be like not to be able to feed my children. Whatever the reason, it is not the children's fault. Hopefully those who care about the welfare of these children (and can afford it) will be making extra donations to foodbanks this week.

@CherryPavlova

Maybe you should also re read my post. Or do you think it's fine to deliberately starve a child too even when you can afford food?

Why are we still debating wether or not it is right to feed children who need it. It boils my piss.

We are just over the FSM threshold with dp's wage. I lost my job in May so we are a one wage household.
We have to pay for our DC's school meals.
We are struggling.
We have less than the majority of people claiming benefits around here. A lot less.
No one is rallying to feed my DC.
Most of the FSM children in our area can be found in KFC or Burger King at 3:30pm with their families.
My DC go once every few months as a 'treat'.

@Pumperthepumper @Ignoringequally exactly@
Flat screen TVs have been around since the 90s! (Those thin flat TVs aren't actually what it means when it says flat screen. My brothers used to get really cross about this misconception for some reason.)

I used to have sky for the exact reason that it was the most affordable entertainment for a family, especially when the weather was bad. These days its not necessary when netflix/amazon prime/now tv are all cheaper and can be cancelled if you have a tight month or shared with a friend/relative

I don’t think your opinion is unreasonable OP but you’ll never get a good discussion or even people try and tackle the real issues because it’s far to easy for them to be overtly self righteous without any effort whatsoever.

Pretty much this.

Quick patch is to throw more money hand over fist at the "easy" option rather than trying to go after the root cause, and then be indignant that some people don't think the quick and easy patch is the way to go.

I knew I shouldn't have read this thread. It is beyond belief that some actual real people believe children shouldn't be fed. They really do. What the fuck has this country turned into?

Oh fgs as if the Tories are going after the root cause of child poverty. As. If.

Sorry we are a one a one wage house my wage dropped but we were not entitled to the extra money even though my income dropped to 600 a month because we get working tax but someone on benefits got the extra 80 a month off the government plus is 1 child an extra 60 a month for food plus all there rent paid little council tax to pay so no child should go hungry but it should be a fair system

@Spied

We are just over the FSM threshold with dp's wage. I lost my job in May so we are a one wage household. We have to pay for our DC's school meals. We are struggling. We have less than the majority of people claiming benefits around here. A lot less. No one is rallying to feed my DC. Most of the FSM children in our area can be found in KFC or Burger King at 3:30pm with their families. My DC go once every few months as a 'treat'.

@Spied I am sorry you are struggling but it's really ugly to punch down.

I sincerely doubt all of the fsm kids (how do you even know who they are?) are huddled round Burger King every day (How would you know unless you are there yourself) tucking into a Big Mac.

@Biker47 I third that. Putting a patch over the issue by throwing money at it,with no real guarantee it will solve it, it so mindless. Trying to actually solve the root issue would be a far better solution in the long term. It's also why I'd never vote Labour, to fond of plasters when they really need a shovel to dig to the roots...

And how exactly do we tackle, and solve, the root cause issues under this Government and before the next set of school holidays?

Because if that was possible then it would be fucking great, but it's not. So the options are do nothing to tackle the immediate issue of even more holiday hunger than before or do something temporarily until we get through the pandemic and then tackle the root causes.

How many children do we sacrifice while waiting for the political will to sort the root case and change low wages, low benefits, long benefit delays, high housing costs and zero hour contracts?

It's not an either/or choice, though. It would be great to have children's centres back again, jobs that paid a living wage, opportunities to learn employment and basic life skills, housing support,non-punitive disability benefits etc. But in the meantime, it strikes me that not letting people starve or freeze is a good interim measure.

@Biker47

I don’t think your opinion is unreasonable OP but you’ll never get a good discussion or even people try and tackle the real issues because it’s far to easy for them to be overtly self righteous without any effort whatsoever.

Pretty much this.

Quick patch is to throw more money hand over fist at the "easy" option rather than trying to go after the root cause, and then be indignant that some people don't think the quick and easy patch is the way to go.

It’s not a patch, it’s the absolute, most basic short term plan to make sure children don’t go hungry.

What’s the long term plan to tackle the root cause? You won’t answer this question.

@Biker47

I don’t think your opinion is unreasonable OP but you’ll never get a good discussion or even people try and tackle the real issues because it’s far to easy for them to be overtly self righteous without any effort whatsoever.

Pretty much this.

Quick patch is to throw more money hand over fist at the "easy" option rather than trying to go after the root cause, and then be indignant that some people don't think the quick and easy patch is the way to go.

Except the government is neither patching nor going after the root causes of poverty.

I wish I could feed all of the hungry children in the world.
Imagine being a child and not knowing when you’d get your next meal. Absolutely heartbreaking 💔

Problem is if you change the low wages and make them higher, the shops just increase their prices too. So unless the government is going to stop that, which they are unlikely to bother doing, then you're back to square one again. But you've probably increased the amount of people struggling.

[quote CherryCocktails]@Biker47 I third that. Putting a patch over the issue by throwing money at it,with no real guarantee it will solve it, it so mindless. Trying to actually solve the root issue would be a far better solution in the long term. It's also why I'd never vote Labour, to fond of plasters when they really need a shovel to dig to the roots...[/quote]
Maybe you’ll answer - what’s their bold new plan to tackle the ‘root issue’? What is the ‘root issue’?

You voted for them, so you should know.

You also won’t be back to answer this question.

What a nasty thread.

I didn't vote Tory so can't answer your question 🤷‍♀️

@CherryCocktails

I didn't vote Tory so can't answer your question 🤷‍♀️

What is the root cause then? What’s your solution? We don’t give them free school meals and instead we do - what? What’s the solution that labour haven’t thought of, but you have?