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.

Not read the whole thrread but was wondering if anyone had mentioned Morrisons food boxes. Available to anyone, next day delivery and the government could just have ordered these www.morrisons.com/food-boxes/box/5-meals-to-feed-a-family-of-4-box

A lot better value!

It’s an utter disgrace
How much money is this company pocketing?

That’s definitely not worth £30. However, it is enough for school day lunches - sandwiches and snacks.

Sorry but it’s for school lunches why should it be £30 a week, it’s not for a whole weeks shop,

My school charge £3 a day for lunch which they say is the cost of the meal. During lockdown we got a £15 voucher per week for kids on free school meals so £30 for two weeks is accurate. The meals the school provide in school are good quality, hot main meal, salad, fruit and milk or juice to drink. It’s certainly not 50p of food a day.

I wonder what the reaction of people would be if families had been given vouchers for £5 a week, which is what schools have to spend on food for school lunches.

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

Except not everyone will be happy with that, some parents may say:

-Sainsbury's is too far from their home
-They can't get a delivery slot
-They can't use the vouchers for delivery
-They don't have the room to store a minimum orders worth of food

You may also get people saying they feel Sainsburys is too expensive/ not good value. You can't please everyone and it's difficult to find a single solution.

@Jellycatspyjamas it's usually about 80p to £1 on the food, the rest of the money is spent on wages and overheads. Schools usually run a loss on school dinners too.

I wonder what the reaction of people would be if families had been given vouchers for £5 a week, which is what schools have to spend on food for school lunches

I'm.sure the reaction to expecting 5 pounds with of food and getting 5 pounds worth of food would probably be more positive than being told your getting 30 quid of food then getting something that looks like a fivers worth knowing someone else received 25 quid profit off your kid.

@Whatwouldscullydo I get that. But if they had been given £5 voucher instead, I wonder what the reaction would be

Horrific.

Our pupil premium students get an allowance of 2.25 per day which in our canteen buys a hot meal and pudding.

So £22.50 for 10 days.

I could do 10 days of decent lunches (including some hot options) for £15 easily.

I can believe the costs to the suppliers are anywhere near £15 per child!

Also even if you don’t care about kids who need FSM and/or think that food is adequate (no idea how) don’t you care that you’re tax is basically going straight into the pockets of a Tory due to a corrupt tender process?
I DO care about the FSM kids but I am also outraged at what they are getting from a tax payer funding this point of view as well.

@MrsMomoa you think a sandwich, crisps, fruit, biscuit and water is an excessive lunch?

can't believe

How can anyone think that’s okay? Do you feed your children plain pasta and plain bread? confused

No you combine it with tomatoes and herbs you have at home. Or grated cheese or wasn't there tuna in that food box?

Either you are so hungry you need the food box and in which case you stretch it and make it work or you arent and you have a few bits in the cupboard to add to it.

For start offy you can feed your children porridge instead of expensive, junk breakfast cereal to save some money there and not buy squash/ pop/ juice as water is better for you anyway. Don't buy junk food snacks and then you free up some money for some toppings to go in the pasta.

They won't give out vouchers because they don't trust people to spend them on what they're intended for. And we know that MN would be full of people complaining that they saw their neighbour spending their vouchers on bottles of wine and chocolate, don't we?

It's ridiculous. There'd be virtually no overheads with vouchers, whereas the logisitcs of creating these boxes is going to be painful and expensive.

So while the theme of this is the sheer cost of this you are complaining that this is not suitable for your child . What do you really expect ? A personal shopper ? One for you and everyone else with their variety of needs ? Sounds like it should be a monetary payment .

Well yes. Isn't that a huge part of this discussion? That the system is not fit for purpose? The value of the food included is just one part of the utter shit show this provision is.

I work for a school catering company, NOT chartwell I hasten to add!!

To me it looks like the catering supplies divided up, the cheese slices for example are cheddar slices we get in kilo packs.

Tuna is usually in huge tins, so it's been portioned out , not something we would do, we have normal sized tins too.

Something I will say though the prices you are all quoting won't be the same as ours, our fruit and veg works out almost double the supermarket price, it is all organic produce though, we are tied to our supplier.

Also our average price to cater for a junior aged child is 90p per child, not the £3.20 parents pay.

It's ridiculous. There'd be virtually no overheads with vouchers, whereas the logisitcs of creating these boxes is going to be painful and expensive.

This.

@5zeds

What are you on ! Please do is a menu for 10 days for 1 school child !

Main
Two cheese on toast
One tomato sandwich
Two carrot soup and bread
Two baked potato and beans
Three pasta and cheese sauce

Pudding
two bananas,
three apples,
three Frubes,
two Soreen bars

10 mains/10 puddings

As I said it’s light on protein and definitely NOT £30

I’m usually a scrimper but this is laughable.

There’s no spread so a dry cheese sandwich? A dry tomato sandwich?

Carrot soup? Fuel a sixteen year old on carrot soup for a full afternoon of learning. You can’t.

Light on protein. Light on everything!

Scrap the frube and soreen and get some proper nourishment down them for a start.

They can’t profit from vouchers, hence the substandard food parcels

People on this thread justifying starving poor kids are an absolute disgrace. Have a word with yourselves.

Many people struggled with vouchers last time I seem to remember.

My super-Tory Trump-supporting Brexit-fanatic MP had already approached the government about this by the time I wrote to him. So if even he is bothered about this issue, it must be utterly indefensible!

People are always going have issues with any system. The voucher system is superior and better value for money.