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.

Ereshkigalangcleg

No, of course not!! You seemed to be questioning that people were being expected to give 2 week old bread to their kids.
Think you’ve misunderstood me.

You misunderstood me first! I was saying did reasonable people really think that's ok? As suggested by my other posts.

Ah, sorry 🥴

@HmmSureJan

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?

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 .

No problem Denise

@5zeds sieved roast carrots in water??? Seriously??

@Grenlei

Why would anybody do this? If you sell your food voucher you still need to buy food for your family unless you are literally starving them (at which point you would hope child protection would step in). It doesn't make any sense at all

Local to us some parents were known to have been trying to use the vouchers to purchase alcohol. If unsuccessful they were selling/swapping for alcohol. In either case they were regularly going to foodbanks and community projects (there are several in our area that people can just turn up at, no need to evidence personal circs etc). So I can see why food has been given instead, it's just a pity there was no attempt to oversee what was given out.

I work in this sort of area and yeah, this was unfortunately going on. Schools themselves were complaining about it and drawing it to relevant people's attention, it's not a Tory conspiracy.

Agree this particular box should be better, but it needs to be something that a child can mostly prepare unsupervised, which Jack Monroe ignores (ofc).

so you’re happy for the money to be pocketed by the private company then? That’s ok as far as you’re concerned? Because this money has been spent by the government already. And it’s gone into the bank accounts of Tory donors, not on food for children. Why should the company get free money and poor people not get free food? Why is that morally and ethically superior in your opinion?

Bang on point. Great comment.

Just give them gruel @5zeds and be done with it

Carrot soup, roast carrots when you bake potatoes mush through a sieve or liquidise with a bit of potatoe, add water

If that's your idea of carrot soup you are a truly dreadful cook. If it's not, then you shouldn't be advising anyone else to feed it to their families either.

Of course some parents will sell the vouchers @Idontwannadance1. Those parents, however, will think nothing of eating the contents of the hamper and not giving any of it to their kids!

That's not a reason to assume every parent will do the same. Most parents on low incomes look after their kids very well and, let's be honest, with furlough and redundancies, a lot more people are hitting the bracket for free school meals. Parents don't suddenly become irresponsible because they've been made redundant! A good parent stays a good parent. Mine used to go without a main meal regularly in order to feed us kids when my dad was on a three day week in the 1970s.

The point is that the woman who highlighted this could have provided the same meagre quality for 50p a day, not the £3.00 per day the government is paying out. With the £3.00 per day she'd have been able to provide a proper meal.

And, of course, there's the other issue of whether these parcels allow for allergies or food preferences. It's no good putting cheese in a parcel for kid that's dairy intolerant or ham in a parcel destined for a child that won't eat meat (or that particular meat if there's a religious aspect to take into consideration). Surely that alone is taking up time for schools where parents, who know what their kids eat, can just buy the food that's needed?

There re no easy answers to all this. A lot of the cost tends to be things like wages to minimum wage people to package up boxes, packaging, petrol not just the cost of the food.

I am not against a universal income with no other benefits of any kind paid to everyone over 18 whether in work or not even if it means 2 or 3 single parents would need to rent flats together to afford rents. It might be fairer all round.

The people on this thread 'Thats an ok amount, people akways want more' are disgusting. These are children we are talking about. Theres some pretty good evidence coming through now on the effect of the pandemic on child hunger. You should be ashamed of yourselves. And the thing is, this Tory 'personal responsibility', 'welfare class' rhetoric will not benefit you in any way shape or form. Saving taxes by cutting services and tax breaks for the wealthy do not 'trickle down'. This attitude just makes the most vulnerable very poor, while not benfitting the vast majority in anyway. Its the Tory megawealthy who do well here. You ve been sold a pup.

And, of course, there's the other issue of whether these parcels allow for allergies or food preferences. It's no good putting cheese in a parcel for kid that's dairy intolerant or ham in a parcel destined for a child that won't eat meat (or that particular meat if there's a religious aspect to take into consideration).

Totally agree. You can't just ignore these things and say the children have to suck it up.

[quote LostSocksBrigade]Our school had food parcels via morrisons. They included
1 white toastie loaf
Pack of crumbed ham
Dairylea triangles
Frubes
Savers mayo
Savers tuna tin
Cucumber
3 bananas
2 plums
3 mini raisin boxes
orange squash
Savers pack of spaghetti
pack of pasta
Savers pasta sauce jar
Savers tin of corn
tub of stork

It was originally supposed to include Cereal, milk, mini cheddars and cover 5 breakfasts and lunches but they must have changed it in favour for the ham and fresh produce which is fair.

www.morrisons-corporate.com/media-centre/corporate-news/morrisons-to-introduce-service-to-feed-self-isolating-schoolkids/[/quote]
This is perfect.

Would make sense for this to be rolled out nationally.

Only thing I'd suggest is to have veggie option and gluten free / dairy free option.

Would also be really easy for schools to get it sent during periods of self isolation etc as well as during this lockdown.

There's way more than just lunch food there.

There’s clearly a fraud case to answer. That is not £30 worth of food so where is the money going?

From Tesco website

For £20 (so allow £10 for overheads)

2 x loaf
Large bag apples
Bunch bananas
Pack ham
Block of cheese
Bag of pasta
2 x small tin tuna
Jar of mayonnaise
Jar of pasta sauce
Multi pack of crisps (x10)
Lettuce
2 x Beans
10 x Frubes
12 x soreen snack bars
1 x pack kirkat/club biscuit

I could do 10 x lunches with that and still let those greedy fuckers make a 33% profit.

I reckon part of the issue is that they've realised a careful shopper could get most of a week's food shopping for 4 people with £30, if they buy things on offer from somewhere like Lidl or Aldi, and god forbid they should make life easier for poor people. No no, just enough at the most for a poor person child not to actually starve to death is what the govt should provide!

So instead of giving them actual money (food vouchers), they prefer to award a contract to a chum who can profit off it and keep the poor in their place. Workshy benefits scum that they are.

So a few parents buy booze and fags with the money therefore all qualifying children must suffer with nutritionally inadequate food while a Tory doner gets to trouser vast amounts of tax payer money. Horrendous.

It’s appalling. It’s really not expensive to feed children in a balanced and nutritious way. Why can’t they just do it properly? Surely there are charities who could have done this on a not for profit basis with that same government funding.

Yet again; another way poorer children are missing out whilst their more affluent peers will be accessing full, varied fridges. The government should be seeing this as an opportunity to pack full as many nutrients into a meal as possible for children who may not get it elsewhere. Those who are arguing “it’s fine” are really missing the point that bare minimum isn’t good enough. Children need the correct nutrition to grow and be able to focus on their school work.

But then I’m a mad raving lefty who thinks that poor people don’t deserve to live in destitution, so what do I know?

And it looked to me like processed cheese slices rather than a block of cheese, which really is adding insult to injury.

@Thesearmsofmine

It’s terrible that the vouchers were stopped but I guess they want people to feel embarrassed and to take away their autonomy to choose food for themselves.

You don't get a lot of choice with FSMs either. My kids schools have only ever 2 choices. And what about those children whose parents choose not to prioritise their children's needs? They do exist, no matter how many people on mumsnet deny it. There isn't one solution, unfortunately.

I thought £30 included eg time of minimum wage workers packing it and that kind of thing.

It is a bit like when people object to a charge of £25 to change a holiday booking or something like that and say how can that possibly be the actual cost but when you look at the wages of the people involved, cost of the rent of the building and over heads £25 is probably less than the cost.

The issue isn't the quantity of food so much; it's that the company are charging the Government £30 for that, which has been costed to about £5. It is thoroughly disgusting.

And therein lies the problem. The minute an agency / contracted supplier becomes involved there won't be 30 quid's worth of food. But how else is it supposed to be rolled out? Powered by fairy dust?

@LegoPirateMonkey what do you make carrot soup out of?

Regardless I am not championing the food parcel I was asked how I thought I would make it work. I have a very large family and have had harder times with many children to feed. That’s what I would do though I take on board there are many families that don’t eat roast veg soups or tomato sandwiches. Are you perhaps under the impression I had said this was good value, or nutritionally ideal? I said the opposite.

Vouchers that can only be used for food. But I suppose some folk would only sell them. But its a better solution than these £5 food packs.

Unless you have any of the other ingredients you mentioned, puréed carrot and water is not something I would call "soup".