What's happened to Free School Meals provision?

[Carpathian2]

I've just had this from my child's school

I honestly can’t get my head around the mentality of this poster.

I am financially strapped and struggling. My child is hungry and in need of free school meal provision - vouchers please

School: We can’t do vouchers any more but here is a care package of perfectly adequate food covering all nutritional bases and requiring minimal cooking/prep.

I am livid and insulted! Keep your food if I can’t get frozen pizzas and chips from Asda I’m not interested. The state of this country is disgusting

Benefits plus that food parcel are ample to feed your child. It’s not all on the school to feed your children.

OP if vouchers had been offered instead, would you have accepted them? Having admitted you won’t be collecting your food parcel because you don’t need it. And saying you only claim FSM to allow the school to claim PP.

Lots of people have said they couldn’t use the vouchers because the supermarket specified was too far away or hard to get to. Suppose your local supermarket is Tesco and the vouchers can only be used at Asda, that’s potentially the cost of several bus fares. And more risk of exposure to covid, by using public transport and going to more than one supermarket.

At least school is local for most parents so everyone can manage to get there.

What we need to know is how much that food Parcel cost to put together and deliver. I bet it's no less than the £15. So why? You can make loads of meals for £15 and if you feed other mouths as well as your DC then that's a bonus.

Part of the problem is that we as a society stigmatise those and attach ‘pride’ to being in a position that could mean the difference between a child being fed or not fed.

If you need the food parcel you take the food parcel. There should be no shame in accepting a food parcel. There should be no shame in ending up in a position which results in needing access to a food parcel to feed a child.

@Carpathian2 your posting changed through the course of the thread and perhaps that’s why you’re getting such a negative reaction.

Neither of the systems are ideal.

We had the vouchers email originally and selected a specific supermarket as it's nearest to our house, then we found out that they cannot be used at the 'local' branches so couldn't use the voucher at the time so ended up exchanging it for cash with a family member.
Next time we selected a different supermarket which is not in our town and tried to get a slot for delivery online which took a month before we could get one so that was less than ideal too, mainly because we didn't have a car at the time and bus fare to the nearest on of those supermarkets would have been £5 (one adult, two ways).

Last time the school asked for our bank details to pay the money into my bank account.

Neither of the three methods was ideal and the food parcel would be less than ideal for us for various reasons but it doesn't matter because it's all a big effort by the school which is appreciated No method can ever be ideal, we just got on with it and sorted it out to our best advantage, when we exchanged them for money with a relative we used it to buy the food for the children.

@spanieleyes
@Quaagars
We are a relatively small primary school, with 160 families on roll. Of those 42 are entitled to food boxes. We couldn't deliver those every week but we do deliver to those who are shielding or isolating and those who don't drive

Ah OK, thought there would probably be provisions to deliver in circumstances such as those
What about people like OP who don't want to come and pick the box up as they find it too embarassing?

@HikeForward of course she would’ve accepted vouchers

@LemonSquirtInTheEyeOfLife

I don't see the issue. That looks like a good selection of food, with lots of different possible ways to use the ingredients. I would be grateful for it. Speaking as a UC recipient with a child on FSM.

As for the issue of feeling embarrassed to queue up / it being "Dickensian" to wait to receive a food parcel - every one else waiting will be in the same position. Anyone feeling embarrassment needs to get over themselves, TBH. There are worse things in life. And it rather stinks of a sense of superiority over other people in the same situation.

I agree with this. It really is irrelevant what other people think. There is too much keeping up with the Jones’, having to be seen as, boasting and bullshitting.

I do get it in some ways. People don’t want their lives publicised. I definitely don’t. I didn’t get a blue badge for years despite qualifying because my health and disability is private. But that was for a parking space for a hidden disability. Rather less impacting than free food.

I don’t think it is Dickensian. The school is not responsible for handing out vouchers. Get upset with the government @Carpathian2. The school is simply buying in food, which it is contracted to do and passing the food onto the families.

Don't admit that you sold them to make use of them @parkpoolplunge. I got accused of fraud when I said that's what I did last time

It's a perfectly reasonable selection of food. Could do:

Cheese sandwich (2 rolls), cherry tomatoes, & cucumber sticks on 3 days.
Baked potato with 1/2 tin baked beans on 2 days
Boiled egg, cucumber slices, fruit & yogurt for snacks /pudding.
Keep the sweetcorn in your cupboard.

Or

Omelette, bread & butter, cherry tomatoes, sweetcorn. 3 days.
Oven baked cheesey wedges, baked beans. 2 days.
Fruit & yoghurt for pudding. Cucumber & cheese for snacks.

Or

Toasted roll, baked beans & scrambled eggs. 2 days.
Cheese, tomato & sweetcorn topped toasted rolls, cucumber sticks. 2 days.
Baked potato with cheese. Tomato & cucumber slices.
Fruit, yoghurt, cucumber & tomatoes as snacks. Also 2 rolls & 2 leftover eggs, hardboiled.
1 leftover potato.

I'm not sure if the OP has any experience of receiving food from the food bank. But obviously they would "get more" there, a food bank parcel is designed to feed a family for at least a few days. Not one child for one week's worth of lunches. And, having received a food bank parcel, I can tell you I'd sooner have the fresh food for making lunches. Food bank parcels are often almost entirely tinned food, or things like plain spaghetti, because it keeps well & is quick to cook.

I'm also interested in the OP's perceptions of receiving a foodbank parcel. Would that also be "Dickensian" and embarrassing?

@TheFormerPorpentiaScamander

Don't admit that you sold them to make use of them *@parkpoolplunge*. I got accused of fraud when I said that's what I did last time

Ridiculous. Swapping them for money from a family member because we couldn't get to the supermarket we had vouchers for (our car broke down and we live rurally and were self isolating which is why we had the vouchers) is legitimate. I don't care what MN think to be honest. Sorry that you got accused like that

@Quaagars
I'm sure we could deliver to those too, but I've never had anyone say they don't want to collect if they can. We social distance on collecting so they can come any time, they don't even need to come into school, the boxes are left in an unattended area.

Looks like plenty of food for 5 lunches, lots of variety and different ways to cook.
Any child with parents without the skills to make a cheese roll or a boiled egg would hopefully be classed as vulnerable?
And how is that the schools fault?
They cant do everything.
Count yourself lucky you only have to collect once a week, our school are doing daily lunch collection which must be a complete pain for the parents far away/with smaller kids/when the weather is bad or dangerous.
I would be happy to get that for free.

I've had vouchers for my eldest , the you get 2s school haven t sorted it out yet so I'm not sure what it will be with them

I did get a food parcel for the younger 2 one week when the school shut as too many teachers isolating and it was perfectly fine for 2 children for a week of lunches , bread, potatoes, fruit, tomatoes, beans etc.

My children wouldn't starve if I didn't get anything for them now but it's certainly appreciated this time of year. My gas and electric meters going crazy with us all being at home all the time and I had to pay extra for better broadband last time due to home schooling and how slow it was, 17 year old who was doing alevels and is still doing online lessons now

Oh we had eggs and milk too

I'll trade! Am grateful for anything but would rather have your box as there's some fresh stuff in it - would love eggs and cheese and potatoes' Apart from fruit I'm getting squeezy jelly, tin of beans, tin of soup, tin of tuna, tin of spaghetti hoops and a loaf of bread. It's ok and definitely better than nothing but the vouchers were much more useful.

It’s not about being grateful, I really am. However, the voucher system gave me the anonymity I want. I don’t want to share my failures with the world. I thought I had made good choices that would ensure that my children would never need to be in this position ever. I bought the house, got the job and chose someone I thought would be good father. In the space of year I’ve almost lost everything. I’d like to retain as much pride as I can.

Apologies if I've misunderstood something, but it this meant to represent five school lunches for your child? If so how on earth can you be calling it meagre? It sounds fantastically generous to me. What were you hoping for instead?

I had an email from school 2 days ago saying I would receive vouchers for Tesco in the post.

[quote Carpathian2]@steppemum

They get more at the food bank! I'm not being snotty, but I think it's insulting to people who haven't got the skills to provide put those ingredients together to make a lunch. [/quote]
Skills? Can't bake a potato, heat beans or make a sandwich?

Bizarre! What a peculiarly entitled mindset you seem to be suffering from!

@Dddccc if you are really struggling you should contact the school. They might be able to help regardless of whether you get FSM (may have a bit extra etc).

@user1471462428

It’s not about being grateful, I really am. However, the voucher system gave me the anonymity I want. I don’t want to share my failures with the world. I thought I had made good choices that would ensure that my children would never need to be in this position ever. I bought the house, got the job and chose someone I thought would be good father. In the space of year I’ve almost lost everything. I’d like to retain as much pride as I can.

Sorry to hear, OP. I understand.

@parkpoolplunge luckily I don't care what MN think either. I was chuckling at the thought that I was some kind of criminal mastermind sending my mum £15 asda vouchers and her putting £15 in my bank account. This way the vouchers got used, my kids got fed. Can't see the issue myself!

@user1471462428

It’s not about being grateful, I really am. However, the voucher system gave me the anonymity I want. I don’t want to share my failures with the world. I thought I had made good choices that would ensure that my children would never need to be in this position ever. I bought the house, got the job and chose someone I thought would be good father. In the space of year I’ve almost lost everything. I’d like to retain as much pride as I can.

There is no shame in getting them. No one should judge you. They are deserved until you are in a position again not to need them.

I do understand though, as I had them when I was in school, years ago, as my dad had died. I was mortified having to tell the person at the till and ended up having begging my mum to give me a packed lunch instead.