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.

@MrsMomoa are you over 6 foot like many teenage boys ?

@Katyppp - They cannot "budget" because they do not receive enough money through work or benefits to pay for the costs of living. 4.2 million children are currently living in poverty.

Well... for £20, This is what Morrisons, a profit-making supermarket, can deliver this to your house.

www.morrisons.com/food-boxes/box/cupboard-essentials-box

I'm struggling to see where the money is going.

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.

We used to have one of the best welfare states in the world. Austerity saw that off. Food banks are run by charities and no civilised country should need them. Talk about grinding the faces of the poor.

@MrsMomoa but you do understand that most people including children can manage a sandwich, crisps, apple and biscuit for lunch though? It’s quite normal. I’d say most kids have that in their lunch box. It’s what I’d send my children in with. I think they might spread it out a d have the apple at morning break and sometimes my youngest brings his crisps out at home time to eat them as he’s a slow eater and wants to get out and play. But it’s not an unusual amount of food!

2 carrots for 10 days?

I made carrot and lentil soup for my baby. Yes 8 months, not school age (5-18). Used 2 carrots, 1/2 onion, lentils. That’s made a baby size portion of purée mush for just 2 meals.

That ‘menu’ is awful

Children of all ages are generally growing. They need a decent balance meal, not scrapings of leftover tuna and dry bread.

Government wastes public money lining the pockets of greedy contractors, yet again.

Vulnerable people go hungry so private companies can profit.

... and yet somehow the thing which outrages me the most is the fact that one in four people are perfectly OK with this.

Clearly, you have the government you deserve. Let's hope you never need their help... you might get an unpleasant surprise.

Also @MrsMomoa as you point out, you’re fully grown. Kids are still growing.

www.chartwellsindependent.co.uk/who-we-are/meet-our-team/

"To be honest, i look at threads like this and wonder when the Government became responsible for feeding children?"
In Medieaval times, providing relief to the poor was a key part of the churches remit. As Christian dogma evolved you started to see a shift from viewing the poor as unfortunate to a problem and then a seperation into the "deserving" and "undeserving" poor, codified in Elizabethan times in The Act for the Relief of the Poor was codified in (1597) and The Act for the Relief of the Poor (1601, this is were we first see a mention of deserving and undeserving). It was also these acts which first specified feeding the poor as a specific government ((state or local) responsiblity.
They came about partly as a result of deteriorating economic circumstances in sixteenth-century England. Others have also argued that it emerged from the post-plague era when the nobles developed anxiety about poverty partly because they wished "to deter the peasantry from realizing how significantly the value of its labor had improved in the midst of a manpower crisis".

I dont have time to go through the whole history, from the ELizabethan poor laws up to the Victorian establishment of the workhouse, through the establishment of the welfare state up to the present day. But in short... Absolutely ages.

I assume MrsMomoa also has the benefit of a decent breakfast and evening meal.

@emptydreamer

But it isn’t 4p though is it. It’s 50p, you can’t buy a single buy a single stockcube. I personally can afford a pack, I don’t have struggles with my utilities but I suspect the reason the government put in the guidelines that the parcels Should contain things that allow families to make meals without them needing additional ingredients is because they realised it would mean additional spending for the parents which could make the difference between topping up your gas or not.

Some people hate to see the poor being fed. They don't give a shit that some rich Tory donor is profiting from this, just as long as those pesky poor (scrounging) people don't get free food paid with from their taxes.

Onions are dirt cheap. Tomatoes and peppers are pretty cheap when you buy a pack. The food parcel with these items cut up and wrapped in cling film is the worst penny pinching miserliness. There is no clearer example that the private companies providing these parcels are motivated by selfish greed.

And ensures the food will go rotten far more quickly. Which no doubt will then be twisted against the parents that they "let it rot".

@Katyppp

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.

Because the goalposts are moved massively during a global pandemic?

No matter how good you are at budgeting, you can't pull money out of your arse. Many people don't have a cushion for times like these, and if you're living paycheque to paycheque, you're a bit stuffed when the next paycheque doesn't come.

@safariboot yes, someone has been buying multipacks of frubes and cutting them open and carefully counting out 3 per person, and large sacks of onions/carrots/apples and carefully counting out 1 /2 per parcel.

The company is Chartwells, a division of Compass whose chairman is a Tory donor apparently

Why am I not surprised?

Outrageous OP! That’s not £30 worth of food. Some one is stealing from hungry children.

@hoxtonbabe
Doesn't really make a difference, if a family cannot afford 50p / month on a pack of stock cubes to feed their children - to an extent that starvation is mentioned - it is not for their school to solve.
In many cases, I suspect, the situation is much more complex than a simple lack of funds.

I am not sure what annoys me the most:

1. Firms thinking that it is acceptable to supply £5-8 worth of food and charge the taxpayer £30
2. The people procuring the "service" not bothering to specify and cost properly and then not checking up.

I don't have much time for celebs, but thank goodness for people like Jack Monroe and Marcus Rashford for making such a fuss that MSM have starting reporting this too. It makes me wonder what o earth these kids are typically fed in school time.

My local greengrocer/wholesaler diversified after the March lockdown closed most pubs and restaurants to put his drivers and refrigerated vans to good use (free delivery for £25+ orders). I would be able to get a small meat box, dairy box and veg box from them, with a couple of quid spare to buy some fruit for £30.

There's also no butter or margarine for the sandwiches and jacket potatoes.

[quote MrsMomoa]@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![/quote]
Growing children burn calories at a higher rate than adults and actually need more food.

Perhaps we just trust people and give them the £30 direct. Or vouchers redeemable at a grocery store if we must. The supplier is adding zero value. Just defrauding the tax payer and stealing from children.

[quote hoxtonbabe]@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.[/quote]
At some school in rural Devon they received a bag of flour instead of bread...

twitter.com/lewis_goodall/status/1348971046381170688?s=21

@zaphodbeeble

Tory donor couldn’t make profit from the vouchers

this this this this this