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.

Our local schools are using Morrisons and the hampers are being delivered to the families, so no issues with travel for families.

@5zeds chopped carrot, celery and onion softened in oil over a low heat in the pan for ten minutes, stock, seasoning and water and simmer for half an hour, cool and blend, stir in Creme fraiche and chopped chorizo, heat and serve. And my kids still won’t eat it, the ungrateful toads.

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?

The vouchers are better. You could limit them to certain items if you want to control it.

"Local to us some parents were known to have been trying to use the vouchers to purchase alcohol" so therefore all children, locally, on FSM should only get a manky loaf of sliced white and 2 and half carrots to eat?

Why are you buying into this feckless parents narrative? Because it is less uncomfortable, that is why.

To those complaining the vouchers were open to missuse I assure you they were not. It states on them clear as day that they can only be used for food and the staff in the supermarkets will only run them through on food shopping only.

I once grabbed some bits for my mum while shopping for myself and she had asked for a new duvet and cover. I forgot to put a divider on the conveyer belt and she added it to my shopping, when I mentioned i had FSM vouchers she refused to accept them as I had non food items.

I was initally a bit miffed that she wouldn't believe me that it wasn't mine but i realised she was doing a horrid job and used the vouchers another day.

Im afraid this really is a about a Tory making money somewhere.

Perhaps if our government won't feed hungry children we need to rise up as local communities and feed them.

@JazzyGeoff how do you make carrot soup?
Luckily the people I feed like my cooking. I guess we just all do the best we can with the skill set we have.

I was particularly impressed with the company sending raw potatoes which "instructions" for cooking which included running a hot oven for one potato for a couple of hours. This for families disproportionately likely to be on meters for gas and electric.

£30 for 10 child lunches is excessive anyway. The whole point of the food boxes is to simply feed, that can be done cheaply. It's not to pander to fussy diets, if you're hungry, you will eat. It's better than vouchers which permit people's taking the mickey about what they spend it on.

£30 on 10 lunches is more than I spend for myself and I earn a good wage!

The problem is that food vouchers would have posed problems too. Parents would have come under scrutiny for spending them on the wrong things, junk food that would not fall within the government's guidelines for a healthy school lunch. And who would police this anyway? The supermarkets? Then some parents would say 'I can't get to a supermarket, I have no transport and I'm a lone parent with six kids under 10, who is going to look after them while I go to the supermarket on my own, as per the rules?'

It's not feasible to deliver a hot cooked meal to every child at any given school's home, given that very localised catchments don't really exist these days.

The system is flawed but I'm not sure what the perfect answer is.

Exactly. Jacket potatoes are great, but imagine that on metered electric.

Vouchers seem the answer. Tobacco is now behind a counter so easy to stop them being used for that, a bit more difficult with alcohol perhaps.

Yep, somewhere else I saw it as 5 days, which it is a little dull but would do, 10 days definitely not enough, My 2 year old would get through that for lunches in 5 days, not a school child!

You couldn’t buy cigs and booze with the vouchers so those claims are nonsense and just fuel the feckless benefit scrounger stereotype

Don't forget that the catering company is buying the food in bulk at wholesale price. They could pay their costs out of the profits of buying £30 of food cheaper than you or I can, and still provide £30 (retail value) of food in their hampers.

“Perhaps if our government won't feed hungry children we need to rise up as local communities and feed them.“

This, of course, does happen. People donate huge amounts to food banks and there’s lots of community projects. But I still think it’s governmental responsibility and people have every right to put pressure on the government to do the right thing. They are supposed to represent us after all.

They just need to enforce the use of the vouchers as loopyapp described. Not allow them to be used to purchase non food items.

@5zeds

Pasta/bread/potatoe. Main carb Fruit/soreen loaf/frubes. Pudding Beans/carrots/cheese. Flavour/protein

I’d say a little light on protein but probably enough for ten lunches

someone is plainly coining it though! I could put that sort of meal together but it would cost me a lot less that 30 pounds for 10 days. I am not mates with the PM though and i never went to Eton so what would I know! It is also the sort of lunch that would be fine for a couple of days in a row, but not great for 10 days!

Tobacco is now behind a counter so easy to stop them being used for that, a bit more difficult with alcohol perhaps

The vouchers already are only accepted for food items - tobacco, alcohol and non food is already prohibited.

It’s incredibly naive to just declare that families in need can just bake a potato, or conjure up carrot soup from one carrot, or freeze the bread to last a fortnight. Families in the direst housing conditions won’t necessarily be able to afford an hour’s worth of electricity to bake a potato. They might not have an microwave, freezer or blender. Some of them may not have access to cooking facilities at all.

And to declare that lunch can be light because dinner is the main meal is to miss the point spectacularly. For many, many children who receive FSM, there is no dinner later in the day. The entire point of FSM is that for some children, a school lunch is their only actual meal. When schools are fully open, children have access to one nutritionally balanced, properly cooked meal per day. These so-called ‘hampers’ are supposed to be a suitable replacement for the main (school) meal of the day, not a snacky picnic add-on.

And whingeing about the cost is also irrelevant, because the government has already given the catering company the money!

[quote 5zeds]@JazzyGeoff how do you make carrot soup?
Luckily the people I feed like my cooking. I guess we just all do the best we can with the skill set we have.[/quote]
There are countless recipes on Google for carrot soups if you're looking for cookery tips. I do not believe that you mix cooked carrots with water and serve that to you the people you feed.

Vouchers would be a much better idea (though tbf there were a fair few that complained about those).

The parcel is a rip off. So many parents were relying on those vouchers and for what? A half arsed box with many things kids won’t even touch? We got baked beans, tomatoes, potatoes all things my DC won’t eat. They gave us bread but nothing to put in sandwiches or even butter to butter the bread?
Just totally non logical.

The point on here that is puzzling me is this issue of food parcels being delivered so people don't have to go to the supermarket. So what do the rest of the family eat? If these parcels are enough for the child(ren) on FSM what do the parents eat?

The point being that, if the parent/carer has to shop somehow, daily or weekly, to get food for the rest of the family anyway the food parcels are taking away no trips to the supermarket at all!

If they're shielding and have to have a delivery somehow then why can't the vouchers be used to add 5 or 10 days lunches for the kid(s) to that delivery?

A food parcel delivery is only good if it means no trip to the supermarket at all - like those who are shielding or elderly are having where possible. Just getting supplies for a sandwich delivered is pointless if you've still got to head out for the rest of it.

Tbf @Cheeseboardandmincepies most kids would eat most of that. It's hardly a box of capers, anchovies and guacamole.

"The problem is that food vouchers would have posed problems too. Parents would have come under scrutiny for spending them on the wrong things, junk food that would not fall within the government's guidelines for a healthy school lunch. And who would police this anyway? The supermarkets? Then some parents would say 'I can't get to a supermarket, I have no transport and I'm a lone parent with six kids under 10, who is going to look after them while I go to the supermarket on my own, as per the rules?'

It's not feasible to deliver a hot cooked meal to every child at any given school's home, given that very localised catchments don't really exist these days.

The system is flawed but I'm not sure what the perfect answer is."

I am - stop worrying about people who have got nowt "gaming the system" and uplift universal credit and child benefit for anyone on universal credit. (Ideally, tbh Universal income but not quick enough for now) And get supermarkets who are expert in logistics, purchasing, distribution and food, providing decent food packs which they have proved that they can manage within their business model, not some Tory crony start-up with no shame.