What's happened to Free School Meals provision?

[Carpathian2]

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

@Chel098 no extra staff in my DD school including no kitchen staff. All KW children have to take a packed lunch.

That is more than adequate to feed a child lunch for a week. If a child has a disability then they are likely to get DLA as well Weekly rate
Lowest £23.60
Middle £59.70
Highest £89.15

So with child benefit as well should be able to buy the foods they will eat to add to the parcel.

Sorry just trying to help there as someone earlier in the thread said they have an autistic child who would n’t eat the food.

@NiceandCalm

PP funding isn't to provide FSM. FSM funding is on top of this and goes to catering in most cases.

PP funding is for education resources.

Posted too soon.

PP funding is often used for TA support, online packages to support PP students, to provide laptops /devices, to provide specialist equipment eg calculators, fund revision guides, funds intervention classes.

Our school has just issued the vouchers yesterday.

@HercwasanEnemyofEducation

And I don't know if it's the same where you are but the FSM funds we receive don't actually cover the full cost of the meal so the school has to pay an additional 20 pence per child per day from its own funds to subsidise the actual cost.

The vouchers can only be spent on food. Supermarkets won't accept them for alcohol and cigarettes.

If only this were true.
This is the reason our local authority have refused to opt into the voucher scheme and are doing weekly food boxes instead.
The supermarkets had been told to accept them for food only. Unfortunately the poor supermarket staff suffered so much abuse over Christmas they gave up trying to enforce it.
Supermarket managers were complaining to the local authority saying so often they stopped the vouchers.
Hence now we offer our families a food box to make 5 healthy lunches for their child.
I have been in charge of getting this up and running this week and it has been a monumental task.
Luckily most of our parents are really appreciative.

[quote CorianderBee]@CatVsChristmasTree you used your child's FSM allocation to buy... fancier fruit? [/quote]
Like with healthy start you can buy by fruit you want whether it be a couple of bits that are more expensive or more that’s cheaper. Or would some people just prefer those on fsm to go foraging the hedgerows and be grateful

@Ritasueandbobtoo9

That is more than adequate to feed a child lunch for a week. If a child has a disability then they are likely to get DLA as well Weekly rate Lowest £23.60 Middle £59.70 Highest £89.15

So with child benefit as well should be able to buy the foods they will eat to add to the parcel.

Unless they are using that dla for Medical equipment not covered by the nhs Towards electric as they have to wash and dry bedding and clothes so often Private therapies as nhs waiting list too long Taxis to appts For living if a child is so disabled one parent can’t work

My child's school used to provide hot meals, but have provided packed lunches since the start of the pandemic (this prompted me to give my son a lunch as he didn't like half the stuff given and came home hungry). It looks like they are just giving the families the food to make at home. I think if a family is really desperate, a packed lunch might be better than a lot of food that needs cooking as that would take energy and money to cook it.

I hope people are being helped for other meals too. I was one of these kids living on the breadline with school lunches I couldn't stand too - think soggy marmalade sandwiches, a bruised apple and a small packet of crisps that were 90% air, so I was really skinny! I think that food parcel looks ok and you have the benefit of using anything leftover for other kids in the family that need it. My school just gives them the lunch in a bag.

The school I work at is providing hampers - we're calling them hampers and not food parcels. Personally I'd to receive one, but why only 2 jacket potatoes and three yogurts? Surely it should be five of both, or is it an egg sanwhich for three days? And two days with no pudding? I suppose it's fruit for pudding.
I understand they need to provide food which won't go off too quickly.
Hopefully the hampers will have a different selection of food each week.

Also, are the hampers being delivered or do you have to collect them? Some children travel miles on a bus to school, it would be a nightmare for lists of families at her school as there is such a large catchment area over several small towns.

Baffled here, that parcel is plenty of food for lunches for a child

My only issue with that parcel is families who may not have the means to cook jacket potato or eggs.

The argument your child doesn't like it would apply in school too.
The argument someone else may eat it, that could happen with a voucher too.

Also not all schools provide hot meals.the primary near me has no kitchen and has a catering company that provide sandwich lunches to fulfil their obligations to provide lunch to the 5-7 & FSM children.

People get a bit obsessed with "hot" lunches but you can easily get the same nutrition from a sandwich lunch.

@Backtoschool101

I love your description “a dusty village”. Beautiful writing.

Plenty for a week of lunches for a child. Covers what the school would usually provide. As for all the "my child wouldn't eat xyz", well the same goes for the lunches thry would have had a school, surely?! They aren't going to like everything, but FSM aren't a 5* tasting menu.

The provision is for one child, for 5 lunches. It's not to feed the whole family, the same as the school doesn't feed the whole family during the day. Yes it's basic, but it's supposed to provide the basics, which it does- for that child. I'm sorry- I think you are being unreasonable.

I didn't say they couldn't be abused. But the vast majority of people will use the vouchers properly, and the contents of a food parcel can also be sold.
How do you know the vast majority will use the vouchers properly?

I think the parcel is good for one child for 5 lunches and is well-balanced with carbs, protein and fat. Great that it has fruit and can make easy lunches.

@AldiAisleofCrap

It’s insulting and wrong it’s also putting families and risk collecting parcels. The vouchers allowed for families to buy a decent amount of food to make hot meals. Enough food to make dinners as well if people shopped wisely.
I don't understand why you would feel insulted by this. If you cannot afford lunches for your child and the Govt provide a parcel with food in it to make your child well-balanced lunches, why is that an insult?

I think you've answered the question. You, not only want them to provide lunches, you want them to provide enough for dinner too. It isn't meant to make dinners as well as lunches though. It is meant to provide 5 lunches for one child. If you are still in need then you can go to a food bank.

@WouldstrokeTomHardy in a sea of nastiness your comment cheered me immensely.

In terms of what government support there is available to feed the rest of the family/other meals,

Just as in normal times there is child benefit, child tax credit, income support, jsa, etc.

FSM is lunches for school children on low incomes, not a mechanism for the state to start providing all meals for everyone.

In the first lockdown our local authority (in Wales with a high percentage on FSM) threw away about 80% of the food parcels being distributed because the families didn't want them.

That food parcel looks more than adequate to me but my children pretty much just have a sandwich, yoghurt, crisps and piece of fruit for lunch every day.

On balance it is helpful for those who cannot afford to feed their child.

I just think it's terribly sad that any child is going hungry in 2021. The system is broken, not just the solution. Poor kids.

[quote KindnessCrusader]@WouldstrokeTomHardy in a sea of nastiness your comment cheered me immensely.[/quote]
I've survived on benefits when DS was younger. Now a single parent on £10 an hour, so hardly middle class. I don't see a sea of nastiness at all.

Isn't it clever how the government keeps saying 'Schools must do this ' 'Schools must do that ' so that parents are now cross with schools either for doing what they are told or for being unable to do the impossible.