A loaf and a block of cheese is not lunch for ten days

[ZazieSheHer]

So some of the free school lunch boxes contain very little food.

Marcus Rashford condemns free school meal packages

“...a package, supposedly containing £30 worth of food to last for 10 days, comprising just a loaf of bread, some cheese, a tin of beans, two carrots, two bananas, three apples, two potatoes, a bag of pasta, three Frubes, two Soreen bars and a tomato”.

mobile.twitter.com/RoadsideMum/status/1348646428084760576

Can’t imagine what it’s like home schooling hungry kids. Would like to say I’m shocked but I’m not.

@femfemlicious If the food is so cheap, where is the justification for the meal providers charging that amount?

The entire point of FSM is that for some children, a school lunch is their only actual meal. When schools are fully open, children have access to one nutritionally balanced, properly cooked meal per day. These so-called ‘hampers’ are supposed to be a suitable replacement for the main (school) meal of the day, not a snacky picnic add-on.

Understood. But how do you provide that, logistically, when as you say, many of these children are living in homes that lack even the most basic cooking facilities? Do you propose a temporary version of Meals on Wheels? I imagine it would be easier and quicjer to arrange that at a grass roots, voluntary level within the community, but even that would be difficult with Covid restrictions in place. It's certainly something I would get involved with happily though. Perhaps better off people can be paired up with a local famly in need and provide delivered hot meals for a while.

Other than than there is no magic bullet except extra money in their hands via the benefits system. Even that - some will say 'it's been swallowed by my overdraft'....'I don't have a bank account'.....'I can't travel to the ATM.'

Bread and cheese and an apple a day isn't perfect but it will ward off starvation.

Below are the government guidelines for a box for 5 days for one child. They enable one protein, one veg, one fruit and one dairy at each meal. Needs to not take up much fridge storage and not require additional ingredients. Here is the recommended box:

1 loaf of bread or pack of rolls / 10-inch wraps
2 baking potatoes
1 cucumber
3 large tomatoes or 1 pack of cherry tomatoes
1 standard tin sweetcorn in water
5 portions of fresh fruit (e.g. apples, satsumas, bananas) or 3 portions of fresh fruit and 1 tin fruit in juice (e.g. pears, peaches, fruit cocktail)
2 items from the following: 1 pack sliced cooked meat (e.g. chicken, ham or vegetarian alternative) or 1 tin meat or 1 tin tuna in water or 6 eggs
200g block of cheese or 3 cheese portions
1 tin baked beans
1 500g pot plain low-fat yoghurt or 3 individual serving yoghurt pots
1 litre / 2 pints semi-skimmed milk

Because not all families live within walking distance of school @femfemlicioud, a lot of our kids (secondary) use public transport and parents don’t drive

@JazzyGeoff Ahhh I see. The answer to your question is yes I have and certainly wouldn’t be disgusted if I didn’t have those things. It’s ok I’m sure you wouldn’t be invited to eat with us. You don’t have to experience the horror of my substandard cooking.

It isn't about parents not affording food it is about fsm being provided in lockdown.oh and parents picking up food is a covid nightmare can you imagine queues. And no social distancing. Etc etc

It would be less than a fiver to the company too as they would be buying in bulk at wholesale prices. I just read somewhere that they produce those little cake bars too.

Of course there will be overheads to pay, but IMHO FSM should not be a for profit enterprise, it is sickening.

it will ward off starvation

For 30 quid out of my taxes I expect better than "ward off starvation" as the replacement of the child's main meal each day, hot or cold.

I'm amazed at people justifying this. If you don't care about the recipients do you not care that your taxes are being pocketed somewhere down the line?

I think people are missing the point completely.
It’s not sandwiches, it’s a loaf of bread with the other ingredients missing, not even cheese or sauce to go with your pasta. How can anyone think that’s okay? Do you feed your children plain pasta and plain bread?

@FuriousWithTheNHS "Food vouchers have always been denigrated by the left in the past as stigmatising and demeaning, removing choice and agency from the parent. Until Marcus Rashford suggested them that is, then suddenly they became a marvellous idea Until we were thrown into an unprecedented situation by a global pandemic where many lost their income and schools were forced to close putting the most vulnerable children in danger of going hungry and vouchers were suggested as a temporary way of mitgating this disaster"

fixed it for you!

How do parents who don’t live within walking distance collect the meals?

This is precisely the kind of repsonse I was talking about, when I said no system is going to meet with everyone's approval.

Perhaps the catering companies should continue to cook the food and volunteers should offer to deliver it. A few families each in their immediate vicinity.

There are two other threads about this. Most of these have been explained there with links.

I'm seeing

two cheese on toast.

Two beans on toast.

Two pasta salad made using some cheese, the carrot and tomato.

Two baked potatoes with cheese .......that's as far as I get. There certainly aren't 8 meals there.

[quote Ihatemyseleffordoingthis]**@Grenlei* I am not doing a comprehension exercise on your post - and it is just as much the general principle as your* opinion that I am commenting on here, but your tone is apologist.

I don't care if some people sold the vouchers. That is not what matters at the moment. Overwhelmingly most didn't, I'd bet. Meanwhile, Chartwells etc, basically do the same thing.[/quote]
I don't really get the straw man argument you're constructng.

You seem to be insisting that I think the meals provided are adequate, I've been very clear that I do not.

However, there was criticism of voucher provision, NOT JUST because of misuse but for other compelling reasons. The solution of providing food should in theory be a better one for parents/ families, if the food supplied was up to scratch, it isn't.

So yes if the choice is the food shown in the OP or voucher, then of course the voucher is preferable. However if there had been proper quality control to ensure the food provided was of suitable quality, quantity and range, the direct supply of food should have offered a better solution.

@Ihatemyseleffordoingthis

Someone needs to FOI their tender

There was no tender.

I'm amazed at people justifying this. If you don't care about the recipients do you not care that your taxes are being pocketed somewhere down the line?

Not justifying it, I've said it's inadequate and down to a flawed system. But it's better than no food at all. I don't know what the answer is - everything suggested so far seems to throw up its own issues. I agree with is not bang for our buck though. We need to do better.

Does anyone know the name of the company providing this?

Aroundtheworldin80moves

Back in the real world, for a school packed lunch on a trip in Reception year, my child was provided with

• a ham& cheese sandwich
• a bag of crisps
• piece of fruit
• chocolate biscuit (kit kat type thing)
• bottle of water

This was apparently the amount of food a 4-18yo needed for lunch according to the kitchen manager.

I'm a grown adult and even I don't eat that much food for lunch!

Our school gives out Sainsbury’s vouchers at £15 a week per child

But it's better than no food at all

A multipack of crisps would be "better than no food at all"

@Ihatemyseleffordoingthis

Someone needs to FOI their tender

I strongly agree with this, and have commented as much elsewhere.

I suspect that either they have not provided what they were contracted to do (in which case the contract should be removed from them and court action taken for breach of contract), or proper details were not sought clarifying what was being provided in which case whoever signed up to this should be losing their job for failing in that due diligence exercise.

Why the fuck engage a company to buy food and send it out, meaning most of the money goes to the company for their 'costs' when the govt could simply go with the vouchers sent directly to parents and with restrictions on what can be bought? (No age restricted products, food only, etc)

Yes fine, a few parents may sell them or something but most parents are actually decent people who just need help and who don't actually want to starve their kids!

But apparently it's better to give a private company £30 so they can spend a tenner or less on food and twenty or more on their 'costs'.

I'd be looking at who benefits from engaging this company. Someone's getting ££ somewhere along the line.