What's happened to Free School Meals provision?

[Carpathian2]

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

If people can't afford bus fare to collect their free food from the school, how do they get their kids to school normally then

The children will have a bus pass but their parents will have to pay. Where I live it would cost 4 pounds a day so hardly cost-effective, when the lunch looks as if it's worth less than a pound.

Bus passes are free for children on FSM in my area but it might be different in others I suppose.

Just checked and it’s free for all areas for those on FSM and maximum WTC. Over 16 and the school gets a fund to allocate as it chooses.

@Liftmusic

Just checked and it’s free for all areas for those on FSM and maximum WTC. Over 16 and the school gets a fund to allocate as it chooses.

Yes, but is not free for parents who are the ones who are meant to be collecting the meals .

Sorry, completely misread that.

why is there no drive/work ethic to improve one’s financial situation even though I’ve just waxed lyrical about my years of hardship which presumably also could have been resolved if I had a better work ethic

I also wonder this. I know some families are financially disadvantaged through no fault of their own eg sudden job loss, illness, disability, partner leaving unexpectedly, refugee status, suffering DV etc. And I fully support these children having FSM.

But a great many families seem to view FSM as something to include in their long term budgeting. As if providing the main meal of the day for their children is always going to be the responsibility of the school/taxpayer/government.

I don’t understand why people choose to have multiple children before they’ve started a career or gained the qualifications necessary to provide. Why people don’t save up ready for starting a family, or at least reach a point where their salary covers their outgoings (including feeding their children). I know many jobs don’t pay a good wage but there are working tax credits, free childcare and so many other benefits to help parents work. I’ve always worked, including minimum wage jobs and contracts and unsociable hours. Every job was a step forward, a step up towards financial stability.

When millions of people rely on FSM long term, with no drive or action to improve their situations, society risks complacency (and mass panic if FSM provision is interrupted eg due to a global pandemic and sudden lockdown that sends schools scrabbling to provide food boxes from unsuitable ingredients, that caterers have already bought for the term). Then these parents are furious that their box isn’t big enough or fresh enough or designed to suit their child’s preferences, or they have to spend money on a bus fare once a week to collect it, or it’s too humiliating. Or they want vouchers or cash payments instead (despite knowing the school has already bought in the food and can’t afford to waste it and provide vouchers/cash instead).

Bus pass is free for all 11-16 here for school.

There's no automatic entitlement to free bus passes here. Only if child's nearest school is 3+miles away.
DS1s school is more than that, but its not our nearest school so he doesn't qualify. (He was at the nearest school but was so badly bullied he ended up refusing to go for almost a year).

@Nonamesavail

Bus pass is free for all 11-16 here for school.

What is your point? The children aren't meant to be the ones collecting food.

why is there no drive/work ethic to improve one’s financial situation even though I’ve just waxed lyrical about my years of hardship which presumably also could have been resolved if I had a better work ethic.

Excuse me but you need to get real. I work in a care home. Minimum when is £8.72 (guess what most carers get??) on a 48 hour week is £1674 gross. If carers had a 'better work ethic' (offensive, much?!), there would be no one looking after the elderly. Not to mention TAs, non-private cleaners, porters, and all the other low-waged ESSENTIAL staff to needed pretty much run everything.
If employers paid a real wage (especially in high rent areas) supplements such as FSM and UC wouldn't be needed.

So all these people that live 20miles from their schools, and have to pay bus fare for themselves, how do they get their primary aged kids to school every day then?

This excuse is just a load of whataboutery bollocks.

@Belladonna12 I won’t reply in the aggressive way that you posted to me. You must have missed my apology in your eagerness to have an online scrap.

I am not saying the food boxes aren’t rubbish, I was posting about bus passes. If you live two miles away in the U.K. and on FSM or highest level of WTC you get free school transport.

[quote Liftmusic]@Belladonna12 I won’t reply in the aggressive way that you posted to me. You must have missed my apology in your eagerness to have an online scrap.[/quote]
Perhaps you should take a leaf out of your own book and read the posts before having a go at people - I wasn't quoting or responding to you.

I think WTC should be abolished as it’s subsidising artificially low wages which benefit wealthy company owners.

@ElizaLaLa

So all these people that live 20miles from their schools, and have to pay bus fare for themselves, how do they get their primary aged kids to school every day then?

This excuse is just a load of whataboutery bollocks.

Perhaps they didn't live 20 miles away from their children's primary schools. They tend to be a bit nearer. People come from all over the city to DD's secondary school whereas primary schools are usually within a mile.

@Liftmusic

I think WTC should be abolished as it’s subsidising artificially low wages which benefit wealthy company owners.

Low wages would need to be addressed first, wouldn't they? Otherwise, people would be left with nothing.

I've just had an email from school saying we are getting vouchers emailed and we can use them in a variety of supermarkets. I'm so relieved. There should be a standard way of doing this instead of some getting vouchers, some food boxes. I don't know what ds's school will do but the two dds have vouchers and that's the bulk of the lunches. If ds gets a food box then I will use it to the best of my ability and will be glad of it but I feel sorry for those getting a shit deal in this.

@Lifeisabeach09 well I would think that’s obvious

@FlatteredRhubardFool

I've just had an email from school saying we are getting vouchers emailed and we can use them in a variety of supermarkets. I'm so relieved. There should be a standard way of doing this instead of some getting vouchers, some food boxes. I don't know what ds's school will do but the two dds have vouchers and that's the bulk of the lunches. If ds gets a food box then I will use it to the best of my ability and will be glad of it but I feel sorry for those getting a shit deal in this.

I have just seen this on Twitter, it’s unfortunate that Jack Monroe has taken the credit but I am so glad about the outcome.

@Liftmusic
To you, maybe. There is some criticising of low-incomed households on this thread so I'm not sure a lot of people grasp who is benefiting, ultimately, from income supplementation such as FSM.

[quote Lifeisabeach09]@Liftmusic
To you, maybe. There is some criticising of low-incomed households on this thread so I'm not sure a lot of people grasp who is benefiting, ultimately, from income supplementation such as FSM.[/quote]
I am not here to police anyone else’s opinion or drive them off the thread. I just offered mine about WTC, that it’s supporting artificially low wages and therefore wealthy companies.

I am not here to police anyone else’s opinion or drive them off the thread.

Never said you were.

I just offered mine about WTC, that it’s supporting artificially low wages and therefore wealthy companies.

Yes, and I am in agreement with you.

Regardless of this that and the other, ‘people should be grateful’ or ‘it’s only meant to be lunches so accept the 5 rolls and 3 oranges it isn’t meant to stretch further than that’ type stuff are those posters with that attitude so short sighted that they’ve lost track of the fact this is a pandemic.

Children on fsm are likely to be living in less than perfect conditions. Possibly with more risk factors. So if they can get more with a voucher then that’s great as they need nourishing. They need food and enough of it and healthy food. They don’t need their probably already exhausted parents travelling to and from to pick up food parcels and to then need to go and do a top up shop too
A lot of comments are saying to add other bits to the bows to makes meals -what if the cupboards are already empty ?
This is a vulnerable group of people and they need I would say more than just the minimum.
To level the playing field in terms of nutrition and health i would even argue they need more

When millions of people rely on FSM long term

Could you direct us to the evidence that shows millions of people rely on FSM long term?

It is worth remembering that many people currently eligible for FSM wouldn't be if the pandemic hadn't happened.

these parents are furious that their box isn’t big enough or fresh enough or designed to suit their child’s preferences, or they have to spend money on a bus fare once a week to collect it, or it’s too humiliating. Or they want vouchers or cash payments instead

Not everyone has an extra bus fare 'slack' in their budget. Not everyone can eat all the food given in the boxes (allergies is an obvious one) meaning that with the best will in the world, someone, somewhere is going hungry. Nor do these boxes recognise that not everyone has the facilities to manage fresh food including working fridges and cookers. Many people have nothing other than a microwave and no eletricity to power it.

Giving people vouchers ensures that people are able to ensure a level of automony over what they eat, ensuring food is culturally appropriate and that it can be cooked or warmed with whatever facilities may or may not be available to any given family. The suggestion that because you are poor you should just be grateful for whatever is, in one of the largest economies in the world, insulting to those of us who are just doing the best we can in often difficult circumstances.

You need to develop a little empathy. You never know what is round the corner or when it will be you who needs to fall back on benefits. Shit happens. And rarely is there a lifetime without some shit in it at some point.