What's happened to Free School Meals provision?

[Carpathian2]

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

DC school had emailed at the start of the week to say that all children in school will be provided with lunch, free of charge and regardless of FSM status, and vouchers will be given to children at home who are on FSM.

How can the school provide hot meals? It seems reasonable for 5 lunches to me, probably have some left over

That's enough to do five lunches for a child.

With what you have posted you could

Monday: Jacket potato with beans, yoghurt, fruit
Tuesday: Cheese roll with cherry tomatoes, fruit
Wednesday: Jacket potato with beans, yoghurt, a piece of fruit
Thursday: Cheese and cucumber roll, yoghurt, fruit
Friday: Cheese and sweetcorn omelette, fruit

and 4 bread rolls to have with soup.

You are fortunate that you don't need the food parcel. Many families on FSM would be grateful for this.

I'm in Scotland (South Lanarkshire council) and we just get it paid into our bank accounts.
I only applied at the beginning of December (thanks to Covid). They made bank transfers for the holiday and then when school closures were announced they sent texts a couple days later telling us payments would be in our accounts this week.

When my son is at school he has a hot meal every lunchtime - roasts, curries, bolognese, sausages, etc. This food parcel is nothing like that.

Its supposed to cover 5 school lunches a week. Not a 7 day, 3 meal a day menu! Be be bloody grateful OP!

@Carpathian2

I've had a good luck at that list and there's no way that food can last a couple of days never mind a week! I really feel for the people who are desperate 😡

Then you need to learn how to make lunches on a budget.

@rhowton

Spoken just like someone who's never had to struggle.

Both of our schools have said they are doing food parcels until they recieve more guidance from the government

That would provide more meals than if they we’re getting school lunches though. Enough for 2 x jacket potatoes with cheese and beans, 3 x omelettes, 6 sandwiches but might need extra filling as a bit cheese/dairy heavy. The thing is with the vouchers it was going to guarantee it parents spent it on food for the child. This is decent I think.

Definitely perfectly good lunched gor goir days out of that!

I've just seen your next post. That is enough for 5 lunches. Did you expect them to fees your kid for 7 days, 3 meals a day?
They only need to provide a lunch, and money or vouchers may be easier for you but that list is enough to do 5 lunches.

Stop telling me to be grateful!

@FoxyTheFox

I think the school are in a difficult position with regard to trying to support families and the government have put them there, they should be providing vouchers not parcels. I'm not on FSM but if I was and was offered that I would decline it as there is literally nothing on that list that DS will eat.

Then you could use it for your own lunches and provide something else for your son. That's what I will be doing if we get a food parcel like that, it's perfectly adequate to feed one person at lunch time.

Well thats plenty with left overs tbh

If you had 2/3 kids you would be getting triple that too. They only provide one roll on a school meal OR one jacket potato.

The roll comes with a baked good, fruit, a pot of juice, cucumber sticks & costs me £2.50. (He gets lunch box most of the time though.)

So they're giving alot more than what the kids would get in school. Potentionally covering snacks maybe?

[quote Carpathian2]@rhowton

Spoken just like someone who's never had to struggle. [/quote]
You clearly are not struggling since you can afford to turn down the food parcel on offer.

It's not supposed to feed an entire family for a week.
It is to provide the means for one child to eat one meal five days a week.
The other meals and other members of the family weren't fed when the kid got the free school meal so I'm not sure why anyone would think they should now.

Such a disparity between schools. Our infants are doing a similar thing to above. Our primary, no idea. Our secondary have been amazing, they are giving vouchers to those on pupil premium even if you don’t qualify for fsm usually-now that’s above and beyond.

People who are less fortunate are still people, they should still be afforded choices rather than have to scrape and bow and be grateful for whatever gets thrown their way.

@Carpathian2

It's a problem because these meals are not hot and are likely to be shared amongst other members of the family. At school you get a meal just for you, outside school many children have to take their chances.

How would that be any worse than the vouchers that you’d rather have?

Providing real food directly to children is going to ensure more children are fed than vouchers that could be sold on or spent on other things.

@parkpoolplunge

I'm not struggling, but many people are. I find the whole premise extremely patronising.

And I’m pretty sure the decision was made yesterday to extend the provision of vouchers whilst in lockdown-provided the school has signed up the voucher scheme, some haven’t by the seems of it.

@FoxyTheFox

Thankyou! That's the point I was trying to make.

[quote Carpathian2]**@rhowton

Spoken just like someone who's never had to struggle. [/quote]
@rhowton is making a fair point. It is designed to cover what your child would get at school - i.e. lunch 5 days a week. There's plenty there for 5 lunches. They can't be asking every family what their child does or doesn't eat and are also not required to cover any other meals.

As far as saying people don't have the skills to make these meals, we are literally talking about sandwiches and jacket potato here. I'm sure the vast majority of people know how to make those..

But it seems ridiculous that schools should have to make and distribute food parcels - haven't they got enough to do?