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.

[quote RylanClark]For the people who think the food parcel shown in the OP was bad, you'll love this one. It'll feed two children for a week the lucky ducks. We'll soon be out of the obesity crisis (and into a malnutrition/scurvy/fuck knows what else crisis).

twitter.com/nickb123452/status/1348951285995864064?s=20[/quote]

That one is shocking. The entire fruit and veg content for two children for a week is a single pepper?

I suppose they should be grateful they got the entire pepper rather than a cut up portion

@LegoPirateMonkey

So not eating all that food at lunchtime then!

Thanks for proving my point!

God thats even worse

I'll eat loose pasta i picked up myself from a refil store id not eat stuff with no date and no packaging like that.

@emptywashingbasket it's this isn't it? The indignity of the old potato and out of date bread. That's just shite and if it's come from school then they need a talking to as well.

It is supposed to be £30 of food!

It’s £3 per day for 10 days.

The boxes for contain food to provide lunches for 10 days which should be the value of £30.

There’s no excuse for these “hampers”

LegoPirateMonkey

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

So are my kids. They're still growing too.
Even they just a sandwich and crisps.

@HikeForward

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?

My guess is that you’ve never been homeless, living in a 1 room B+B with a couple of kids and limited means of cooking in a shared kitchen? There are thousands of families living like this in the UK. I doubly very much that the actual parents who do live in such a situation are not the ones complaining on MN - I complain as I believe we should do our utmost to support vulnerable children in society.

I haven't read all responses granted but I've just got my monthly food bank parcel and it's 6 big boxes from aldi and I bet all that isn't far from over £30. Saying that though I think £3 is a lot for a packed lunch, sorry but I do. I've got 3 DC and they usually have...
pizza/pitta/sandwich - usually left over meat from the roast on Sunday
Crisps - handful from one of those big share bags of prawn shells or cheese balls
Dried fruit - 15g mixed fruit or raisins from big bags
Cheese - 2 sticks cut from a block
Cucumber - 4 sticks cut
Fresh fruit - an apple, banana, orange etc
Pudding - a crispy cake, jam tart, fairy cake or something that we've made it bulk

If I work that out individually and x3 I doubt it would be more than £4 a week

Hi
Genuine question in case anyone knows : do kids with Coeliac, Severe allergy or other medical needs get any safe food at all of they are entitled to FSM?

I agree with this 'entitled' lot actually. I was so thankful for my parcel to include nappies this time. Like literally my partner said to me yesterday - have we got money for nappies? I also am ultra savvy with food for all of us, not just the kids packed lunches and I don't think I'm entitled, I'm bloody grateful to the back teeth!!!

I imagine it would be against the Equality Act not to cater for many special diets.

Zaphodbeeble

@MrsMomoa think it’s bloody obvious that someone tall like a 6 foot year11 boy is going to eat a lot more than the meagre lunch you are claiming to eat hmm

So tall people eat more?
I'll be sure to inform my partner who is over 6ft and also just eats a sandwich and crisps.

A sandwich and crisps is not meagre.
And I am not "claiming" anything.
Why would I lie about lunch?
In fact, I had a sandwich today, no crisps.
I wasn't starving. I didn't die.

His is a sickening thread - partly the paucity of the parcels and the measly way they have been put together and partly the attitude of some posters who seem to think it is OK to treat children like this.

As a cuple of posters have pointed out the £30 is meant to cover kitchen staff and overheads etc and as there are quite a few children in school being catered for those costs are contiuing. However CHartwells have told the BBC that their food parcels should contain quite a lot of food, certainly plenty for 10 lunches even for a teenaged boy:-

Cheese (200g)
Six red apples
Four oranges
Four bananas
Two cucumbers
Four carrots
Eight baked potatoes
One lettuce
Two tomatoes
Four cans of baked beans
1kg of pasta
Four tins of chopped tomatoes
Two tins of tuna
Four tins of green peas
One loaf of bread
Three malt loaf snacks
Six yoghurts

So if your school is catered by Chartwells and isn't providing this I suggest you get on to the catering manager to ask why not.

Good expected 30 pounds. Goods received 5 pounds

I think most food boxes contain far more than £5 worth of food. People have been sharing pictures of their weekly boxes on social media and many appear to contain plenty of healthy, nutritious foods including a variety of fresh fruit, salad items, jam, butter, whole loaves of bread, tins of soup, tins of beans etc. Maybe one company is corrupt (or hasn’t calculated properly, given they’ve had to design, calculate and pack these boxes in a huge rush!)

Why would you expect to receive £30 worth of goods per week to make lunches for one child? I’m sure very few people spend that on their children’s lunches, even if they’re comfortably off.

The catering companies have to pay staff wages to sort, pack and distribute, they have to pay for refrigeration for storage, pay for transit of items, pay for packaging. I’m suspicious of people who claim they received half a vegetable or a bit of tuna in a moneybag, as this breaches all sorts of health and safety guidelines not to mention guidelines around covid!

The issue is that it isn't supposed to be a light lunch where hot food is normally provided, it's supposed to be a full balanced meal. In case it is the only decent meal of the day.

Your partner is fully grown @MrsMomoa, my two teenage sons are still growing, that’s the difference

Evidently some councils are getting it right. Stessy24's is decent, though maybe not the healthiest. lewis_goodall's looks not too bad for one week, no bread but plenty of pasta and noodles, but it would all need proper kitchen equipment to prepare. nickb123452's would not be the worst except that tuna's trying to kill the children!

The catering companies have to pay staff wages to sort, pack and distribute, they have to pay for refrigeration for storage, pay for transit of items, pay for packaging.

That's why this isn't a cost effective way of providing FSM.

"So tall people eat more?"

Sometimes yes, males seem to need more calories in general, active, fit people (and hyper kids cooped up indoors), will often burn more calories, have a higher metabolism, so need more calories, or they'll start to loose weight. BMI takes height into consideration for a reason. My GP once told me sometimes kids won't be fussy about food, at other times, like during a growth spurt, they can more than make up for it. He was right.

@Mrsjayy

I think the Welsh picture is a bit of a pisstake and adding fuel to the "ungrateful" responses that is a load of food. For 2school weeks.

But it is quite unfair to trust a photo from one anonymous twitter account and not from another, isn't it - only because one complies with the narrative and the other don't?

Eresh - yes or course you are right, I’m sure it would be against the Equality Act not to cater for children with medical dietary needs. But I know from experience that even hospitals can struggle with doing this properly especially when things get complicated. So given the competence of this latest effort to feed disadvantaged children with no complications- what is happening to those with additional needs? Are these children getting any safe food at all - are there those with experience of this?

I rather thought the stessy one was to point out that the Welsh authorities were providing more adequately?

@Londonmummy66

His is a sickening thread - partly the paucity of the parcels and the measly way they have been put together and partly the attitude of some posters who seem to think it is OK to treat children like this.

As a cuple of posters have pointed out the £30 is meant to cover kitchen staff and overheads etc and as there are quite a few children in school being catered for those costs are contiuing. However CHartwells have told the BBC that their food parcels should contain quite a lot of food, certainly plenty for 10 lunches even for a teenaged boy:-

Cheese (200g)
Six red apples
Four oranges
Four bananas
Two cucumbers
Four carrots
Eight baked potatoes
One lettuce
Two tomatoes
Four cans of baked beans
1kg of pasta
Four tins of chopped tomatoes
Two tins of tuna
Four tins of green peas
One loaf of bread
Three malt loaf snacks
Six yoghurts

So if your school is catered by Chartwells and isn't providing this I suggest you get on to the catering manager to ask why not.

What on earth would you do with four tins of peas? Ok, shove a few in tuna pasta but FOUR tins?

@Porcupineintherough

For £30 that doesnt seem a great deal. But is it meant to be £30 of food or are the on-costs (admin, purchase, storage, distribution) supposed to come out of it also?

Given the original vouchers were 30, then 30.

It's a disgrace

25% of voters think that it's ok for children to go hungry so a private company can profit.
Jesus fucking wept.