Meet the Other Phone. Flexible and made to last.

Meet the Other Phone.
Flexible and made to last.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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

999 replies

ZazieSheHer · 12/01/2021 10:00

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.

OP posts:
Thread gallery
12
Emeraldshamrock · 12/01/2021 13:58

It is a very plain and small amount of food for 10 days.
I've only read first few pages I'm sure it has been said, there is no way the government are paying more than £10 for that.

Ereshkigalangcleg · 12/01/2021 13:58

and when vouchers were given, some families said they did not help them as they couldn't afford the fuel cost to cook a hot meal at home, or didn't have facilities, nor had anywhere to store a weeks worth of food meaning they couldn't get shopping delivered from a supermarket that was too far to walk to - the latter assuming they could swap the vouchers for cash because they couldn't be used online.

How is this situation an improvement for those people? They still need the fuel, they still don't have the facilities, they still need to store a week or even a fortnight's worth of food.

ithinkyouareveryrude · 12/01/2021 13:58

Surely this would have been better assigned to local authorities who could have given parents the choice of vouchers or a food package.

The food package then distributed/collected via supermarkets like Morrison’s who are offering next day delivery services for far superior packages WITHIN BUDGET.

TantieTowie · 12/01/2021 13:59

Apparently

hoxtonbabe · 12/01/2021 14:01

@Lemonyfuckit

The bread going off?!?! you’d think so wouldn’t you. But if any parent has noticed the bread ( well in my DS school hamper) has a shelf life of a year and can last well Over 2 weeks and even then it hadn’t gone off. I refused to give it to my son that bread as Bread is one of those things I always have in the house anyway. Any bread that doesn’t go off for a year has no business being eaten.

My sons school was happy to give stale cheese, old fruit and veg which went into the bin, when I told the school about it they basically said tough. This is why I was so happy when they eventually issued us vouchers on Friday.

Someone mentioned upthread about using the carrots to make a soup which is true but the guidance states parents are not expected to make up meal with additional items from their store cupboards so unless the box includes stock cubes as you said it will literally be blended boiled with water carrots.

Ereshkigalangcleg · 12/01/2021 14:02

literally be blended boiled with water carrots.

Which the pp thought was reasonable.

DeRigueurMortis · 12/01/2021 14:03

And just to add, the argument against vouchers is irrelevant.

The vast majority of people would use them appropriately.

Penalising everyone with this sub standard approach is not the answer.

I'd much rather accept some parents selling the vouchers for half price and still being able to buy £15 of food than everyone getting less than £10 of food so companies can profit from tax payers money.

HikeForward · 12/01/2021 14:04

My autistic child wouldn't eat one bite of that food pack, not even the bread unless it was their specific brand that they'll tolerate. What about those kids?

If you can’t afford to buy him the specific brands he’ll tolerate, I guess you have to explain that to school and hope they’ll provide food he will eat. But with school staff being so stretched I doubt they can provide a bespoke box for every child with ASD who needs specific brands/foods. Remember there will also be children with allergies and intolerances or vegetarian diets school has to cater for.

How does he manage at school, does he eat the food they offer him?

What I don’t understand is how do you manage at weekends and holidays if you’re so restricted by the brands he’ll tolerate?

Grenlei · 12/01/2021 14:05

@Ereshkigalangcleg clearly providing a limited poor quality and exceptionally poor value selection of food is not a desirable solution, but my point is that vouchers ALSO didn't work for everyone. Arguably if you are providing food then at least this gets round issues like people being unable to get to a supermarket to use the vouchers/spend them online and therefore having no food.

It should go without saying that the food that is being provided is clearly not £30 worth, not even £5 worth I wouldn't think, so something somewhere has gone very wrong if the caterer is fulfilling their contractual obligations by providing something so meagre.

Lemonyfuckit · 12/01/2021 14:05

@hoxtonbabe jeezus it just gets worse doesn't it - completely agree, bread with a shelf life that long has no business being fed to children!

GoodQueenAlysanne · 12/01/2021 14:07

"and when vouchers were given, some families said they did not help them as they couldn't afford the fuel cost to cook a hot meal at home, or didn't have facilities, nor had anywhere to store a weeks worth of food."

Honestly these families sound beyond vouchers and food parcels atm. How do they manage dinner? Are these the "only hot meal some children get, per day is there school lunch", they do without at weekends families? Why can't more be done to help these people. That's no way for people to have to live in the 21st century, in a developed nation. This is Britain 21 Sad.

Icenii · 12/01/2021 14:10

If we are given our poorest children a chunk of carrot, cut up tomato and decanted tuna, and expecting it to remain fresh and last past a couple of days, and people are agreeing or arguing for this, and those in power won't change it, what does that say about our society. It's vile.

emptydreamer · 12/01/2021 14:13

Someone mentioned upthread about using the carrots to make a soup which is true but the guidance states parents are not expected to make up meal with additional items from their store cupboards so unless the box includes stock cubes as you said it will literally be blended boiled with water carrots.
But not being able to afford a 4p stock cube to add to the soup is probably a deeper problem, that can't and won't be solved by food parcels covering school lunches for one child.

Aloethere · 12/01/2021 14:15

I think it isn't fair to expect that school meals can plug the hole of what seems to be extreme poverty in the UK. If the situation is so dire that people can't afford a cheap tub of butter(people were talking about tomato sandwiches on dry bread), a few stock cubes(people were talking about carrots floating in water), a basic necessity such as freezer, I've seen people saying that people might not have the means to heat a tin of beans. What does this leave?

Forget the outrage about school meals, where is the outrage that people are so poor they can't afford a quid for a tub of butter? Where is this outrage when you are voting in your government that continues to make people so poor they can't afford stock cubes(here it is .40c for 10)?

In my opinion, the anger is misdirected. Parents should have enough to money to feed their children, to have basic kitchen necessities, why do people keep voting in a government that doesn't see this as an absolute priority? Some people will always fall through the cracks no matter what a country does but the scale of it in England, the food banks, the needing schools to feed children it is horrifying and shameful.

TheQueef · 12/01/2021 14:16

26% of pollsters are wankers begrudging people the choice of food and are ok with being fleeced to prevent it?

Shame.

WeAreShiningStars · 12/01/2021 14:19

companies are absolutely taking the piss, pocketing the bulk of monies they are being given to provide food to hungry children. they should all be banned from receiving government contracts of any kind going forward.

Ihatemyseleffordoingthis · 12/01/2021 14:20

@Aloethere
I completely agree.

I think this issue is upsetting people because they can actually plainly see what it means and imagine themselves in the situation.

I hope people can also see this as an example of how contracting private companies to deliver public service works - ie inefficiently and extractively. See also the NHS.

HikeForward · 12/01/2021 14:20

To be honest, i look at threads like this and wonder when the Government became responsible for feeding children? And when did people become so entitled that they expected it? And complained because it wasn't enough?

Same here. The venom and blame on some of these threads astounds me. It’s so sad people feel entitled to a set amount of money per week from the government/school/catering company instead of a box of free food. Or the exact equivalent of that money.

People complained about the vouchers because they could only be redeemed at certain supermarkets etc. If you give people a direct payment there’s a risk some parents won’t spend it on food for the kids.

Whatever is in the box (and in some schools it’s a very generous amount of healthy, nutritious food) people will moan their kid doesn’t like tinned food or only eats crisps for lunch or won’t eat fruit and veg or they’ve suddenly gone vegan.

We have one of the best welfare states in the world; UC, housing benefit, child benefit, subsidised childcare, PIP, carers allowance, food banks, charities that deliver food parcels, tax credits etc. FSM are just a tiny part of that. They’re supposed to provide children with one meal a day on school days, yet even in a global pandemic and economic crisis, parents find time to moan about food boxes not containing enough, instead of using food banks or their other benefits to top up the box contents.

Why not be thankful we live in a country where school helps out with food costs, instead of focusing on feeling cheated or disgruntled with the free food school are giving you?

MrsMomoa · 12/01/2021 14:20

@LegoPirateMonkey

Yup.
As a fully grown adult, I eat a sandwich and a bag of crisps for lunch.
I couldn't possibly also manage fruit and biscuit too!

hoxtonbabe · 12/01/2021 14:21

@Ereshkigalangcleg

I know, bloody ridiculous.

@DeRigueurMortis exactly, yes their are some that would sell off their vouchers but there are many like me that use their voucher for its intended use which is to provide lunches for my son and I’m providing him with much more than a cold sandwich every school day. I think all schools should provide a choice of vouchers or hampers but either way there is no denying the hampers are a rip off.

BrokenCircle · 12/01/2021 14:22

I’m a teacher, and when I tried to give out the vouchers for free school meals for half term (the vouchers were for a budget supermarket - which is where I shop) several students brought them back and said their parents wouldn’t shop there.

SingleMumOnlyChild · 12/01/2021 14:22

Why can’t the government give £30 of vouchers to the parents.
In France we have something called cheques déjeuner (luncheon vouchers) and you can spend it on your food shop.
There’s no shortage of supermarkets and if they were feeling generous, the supermarkets could add something extra for free like fruit / veg / dairy.

Katyppp · 12/01/2021 14:23

It's a lot easier to fling insults at posters you don't agree with than try to engage.
Lots of hyperbole, lots of whataboutery but no answers to WHY people cannot budget in order to feed their children.

Ihatemyseleffordoingthis · 12/01/2021 14:24

"To be honest, i look at threads like this and wonder when the Government became responsible for feeding children? And when did people become so entitled that they expected it? And complained because it wasn't enough?"

Tbh you must be completely oblivious to history. The poor have always been provided for by the collective since feudal times, though not necessarily ever efficiently or generously.

What sort of nation doesn't look after those in most need?

Whatwouldscullydo · 12/01/2021 14:26

Why not be thankful we live in a country where school helps out with food costs, instead of focusing on feeling cheated or disgruntled with the free food school are giving you?

Just because itsbfree doesn't mean it shouldn't be fit for purpose or a rip off.

If you were given change fir a 10 instead of the 20 you'd given would u shrug ajd be grateful you got any change back at all?

What they are supposed to get ajd what they got were entirely different.

Somewhere 25 quid because that's the difference between an asda price up of the items and the money they were given to get it, went missing. Straight out of the months of hungry children.

Forget its fir fem if you like if it makes the math any easier to work out

Good expected 30 pounds.
Goods received 5 pounds

Acceptable.or rip off?

Swipe left for the next trending thread