What's happened to Free School Meals provision?

[Carpathian2]

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

Oh stop! If you only sign up out of altruism you are being as patronising as you accuse the school. Take the parcel or don't, but let the school know if you don't so it doesn't go to waste.

Someone said their child couldn't eat it due to coeliac... the school should know that so you may find an alternative parcel is waiting for you. DSis asked how we sort our special diet bags, we colour code them, so she can be sure to deliver the right food to the right child. Yes, she drives round and hand delivers them, socially distanced conversation to check on the child and family as a whole. Though some parents find that patronising too! Sometimes you can't win for losing!

It makes no sense that you don’t feel patronised by receiving FSMs but you do by this. It’s the same thing, and nobody should feel patronised by receiving either. It’s a scheme that exists for a reason.

Really, there’s no way of the government keeping everyone happy with this. For some families vouchers are a problem for various reasons already stated, and for others a food parcel won’t be suitable. Overall, it has to be better to give food directly to children. If their families need it, they’ll take it, and if they don’t need it, then the school’s money won’t have been wasted on vouchers.

How much food do you think should be in it op to feed one child for five days?

Goodness I hope our school don’t do this we need a voucher as none of those foods would really be suitable for my child at primary (coeliac and egg and dairy allergic) we used out other vouchers to buy food she can actually eat !
In that case, surely you'd just use the parcel for other members of the family. And with the money saved on the shopping bill you'd buy your child food they can eat.

What would you expect to be in the box?

For the umpteenth time, I'm not being ungrateful!
As for teaching my ds to make lunches, he takes medication for ADHD that kills his appetite during the day. Hence why I don't need the parcel.

@Bluntness100

I think actual food parcels are better than vouchers because at least the school knows the child is being provided with food

Not if it’s a really bad situation and other people in the house eat the child’s food.

Well I don’t think the school can do much about that, they’re trying to do the best they can. They can’t attend each FSM child’s house daily and stand watch whilst they eat the meal.

@Carpathian2

For the umpteenth time, I'm not being ungrateful! As for teaching my ds to make lunches, he takes medication for ADHD that kills his appetite during the day. Hence why I don't need the parcel.

So what are you moaning about?! This food parcel will help a lot of people who need to feed their child LUNCHES during school time.

@Carpathian2

Stop telling me to be grateful!

quite - clearly you're not in need of assistance as you refused it. Good to know that benefits are sufficiently generous that you do not require assistance with free school lunches.

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.

The vouchers were abused. I know people who tried to but alcohol etc with their vouchers.

The food is adequate and allows the child 5 lunch meals.

I'm not sure what your problem is.

To clarify, I'm not actually complaining about the contents of the box. It's the fact that you need to go to the school every week to pick it up and the embarrassment that causes.

So I will doff my cap and be humbly grateful for whatever is thrown at me.

Prior to lockdown we had a parent ( whose child was off sick but not Covid related) phone and ask me to deliver a hot school lunch as they were entitled to it! TheOP seems to have the same unreasonable attitude!

One issue may be that this is food that was already ordered for the term, and that the school can not afford for it to be wasted and therefore they are distributing this in lieu of lunches.
But I know that it’s less convenient than ready to go lunches.
It could well be though that for a lot of people this is preferable as it provides something more substantial, and a few of the items can be stretched if need be.

Ffs

Anyone else remember the days when it was a parent's responsibility to feed the children they'd chosen to have? Now it appears to fall under the remit of any other service provider sadly.

What exactly ARE parents responsible for these days? It's certainly not providing a meal for their own kids it seems

And I'm fully supportive of all children being fed and FSM for anyone who needs them. I'm just not in support of this weird parental buck passing of what should be a given - just feed your own kids?

Can’t you see that if you don’t need the parcel then you don’t need the vouchers either? So all you’re doing is complaining about not getting a freebie.

@Carpathian2 what do you want then? Free delivery too?

@Carpathian2
But you WERE complaining about the "meagre " contents in your original postings, not the delivery system!

@FlamingoAtTheBingo

We deliver too, to those who don't drive or can't collect. Presumably we should disguise ourselves as ASDA drivers ( or perhaps Waitrose as it's less embarrassing!)

It's the fact that you need to go to the school every week to pick it up and the embarrassment that causes.

The only other people there, apart from ones that already know you’re entitled to FSM anyway, would be other people there for exactly the same reason as you.

@Carpathian2

To clarify, I'm not actually complaining about the contents of the box. It's the fact that you need to go to the school every week to pick it up and the embarrassment that causes.

So I will doff my cap and be humbly grateful for whatever is thrown at me.

"I thought that the campaign by Marcus Rashford was supposed to help the low income families, but how is this meagre food parcel supposed to help?"

Make your mind up OP about what you are really complaining about

The vouchers were abused, if a child needs food providing food rather than vouchers seems like a perfectly valid scheme.

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.

The parcel doesn’t sound ‘meagre’ to me. It contains lots of healthy ingredients to make several lunches for a child!

Unless a parent is disabled I highly doubt they’ll ‘lack the skills’ to make lunches out of those ingredients.

Food banks also supply ingredients most of the time, not readymade meals or hot meals.
There’s nothing to stop families in need accessing food banks in addition to receiving their food parcel.

I think we need to remember the country’s in economic crisis. Maybe the government/schools can’t afford to provide hot ready made lunches this lockdown.

@NailsNeedDoing

Can’t you see that if you don’t need the parcel then you don’t need the vouchers either? So all you’re doing is complaining about not getting a freebie.

I don't really need either, it's about treating people who do with respect. I'd quite happily donate for the school to distribute as they see fit. Beleive it or not, with careful planning it's possible to get by on benefits. It's been a life saver for me.

The sooner I'm back in work the better.