No free school meals during Feb half term

[noblegiraffe]

The new guidance on free school meals says that schools should not provide food or vouchers during Feb half term.

This won’t be needed as some general funding is going to LAs and they will be expected to provide food/support for the week schools are off.

This is bonkers, right? They’ve only just sorted it so that kids get more than a manky banana, cheese and dry bread for lunch and they’re going to switch to a different system for a week?

Does this government just really hate feeding hungry kids?

YANBU: sticking with one system for feeding disadvantaged kids would be best

YABU: it’ll be fine, no one will fall through the cracks and the transition will be seamless.

Yes i would if i was in desperate need of food for my children.
The cost/value analysis is a different point.
On one hand, you are saying people are so desperate their children are starving, yet on the other hand, the food isn't good enough so they don't bother collecting it.
Which is it?
And by the way, there is no way any catering compan would divvy opened tins into money bags, no way at all.
I don't know what the agenda is/was of the person who posted that particular picture but they are not being entirely truthful.

@Katyppp

Yes i would if i was in desperate need of food for my children. The cost/value analysis is a different point. On one hand, you are saying people are so desperate their children are starving, yet on the other hand, the food isn't good enough so they don't bother collecting it. Which is it? And by the way, there is no way any catering compan would divvy opened tins into money bags, no way at all. I don't know what the agenda is/was of the person who posted that particular picture but they are not being entirely truthful.

So now the woman is lying.

Katy, you need to open your eyes.

What’s fascinating is that people keep harking back to a Labour government as if that excuses failings in a current government. As if people are in favour of not feeding hungry children if it’s Labour doing it.

@noblegiraffe They also forget that the Labour government was preceded by 18 years of Tory government.

Kimchi, with respect, my eyes are open.
I work in the food industry. There is no way that would happen. It just wouldn't.
You said upthread somewhere that you just knew schools would not order cheap hampers and pocket the difference. I assumed from that you work in a school and that claim just didn't 'sit right' with you?
Well, it's my turn now j

@Katyppp

Kimchi, with respect, my eyes are open. I work in the food industry. There is no way that would happen. It just wouldn't. You said upthread somewhere that you just knew schools would not order cheap hampers and pocket the difference. I assumed from that you work in a school and that claim just didn't 'sit right' with you? Well, it's my turn now j

🤣I couldn't help but smile at that comment. You're growing on me , young Katy triple P.

Why did the company apologise then?

Did they apologise specifically for putting tuna into money bags?
If so i apologuse unreservedly
If their apology was general grovelling about the crap hamper, i stand by what i said

@VinylDetective yes I would be grateful.

We get absolutely no help yet aren't in well paid jobs . We do our best for the kids and we are struggling as our costs have also gone up . More on heating, electricity, gas, water and more on food due to the kids being at home yet myself and my key worker husband have had no payrise at all.

3 kids using 1 laptop for homeschooling and as my eldest has live lessons had no choice but to buy a basic chromebook on my credit card as we are not eligible for a device from the school so yes I would be grateful for any additional help for us families in the middle .

@Katyppp

Did they apologise specifically for putting tuna into money bags? If so i apologuse unreservedly If their apology was general grovelling about the crap hamper, i stand by what i said

Right.

You may be right about the tuna in the bags then.

But now what?.what does that mean?

I don't believe the coin bags one either personally. There is no way any food catering company would. He examples of some in takeaway tubs yes but the coin bags.. I call BS

Anyone else see Rufus comment on dancing on Ice?? Ooft!!

However i can absolutely understand why they try at least dig their heels in, because once something is given, it's very difficult to remove.
I can remember the backlash when it was suggested that the policy of free school meals for ALL KS1 should be looked at. My youngest is 13 and he didn't qualify, so they are a very recent thing. Yet people were acting as if the world would stop turning if they were taken away.

Yesterday i wrote the above to illustrate why any increase in benefits or budgets needs to be thought out, not reactivr.
As if to prove my point, the £20 uplift to UC brought in in march last year is being debated, and in the motion for debate is described as a cut.
It was a temporary uplift only, not a permanent increase, but the Government will have to pay this permently I would imagine.
So although the school meals in thd holidays is being described as temporary, whatever decision is made will most probably become permenent, af enormous cost, on tol of te enormous cost of the UC uplift.
That's why these things have to be thought through.

From today’s Daily Telegraph. It’s just about the only thing that bastion of the right wing has ever printed that I wholeheartedly agree with.

The free school meals scandal, in which tatty food parcels were sent to cover lunches poor kids would miss at school, betrayed the timeless hypocrisy of the middle class. How often do they say: “Why can’t the poor feed their children properly? All one needs is some spaghetti, minced beef, a little onion, and you’ve got a nutritious bolognese!” Yet when push came to shove, what did the state send the poor to eat? Baked beans and a loaf of white bread.

The middle class routinely say that the poor cannot be trusted with cash benefits because they “don’t know how to manage a budget”, yet I have never known people as wasteful with their money as the rich – they are forever blowing it on clothes, cars and booze, and once every 10 years they knock down their house and rebuild it even bigger. We are all the same at heart. The only difference between rich and poor is that the rich have enough money to waste without consequence; the poor by definition do not.

👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏 Vinyl.

In case anyone thinks I was on the gin last night , posting about Rufus Hound, he was asked whether he thought he'd ever be on DOI and said well he is living in a country where the government don't want to feed hungry children. Quite.

@Sinful8

"Does this government just really hate feeding hungry kids?"

Not as much as their parents seem to....

This

@redpencil77

I can see why you quoted it since it went so well the first time.

However....

The original comment was out of line and so is yours.

[quote Wheresmykimchi]@redpencil77

I can see why you quoted it since it went so well the first time.

However....

The original comment was out of line and so is yours.[/quote]
Then we agree to differ. Open up your home and house them, why don't you, that is what you are advocating, in effect, that society pay for their life choices. Contraception is free from the GP. Feeding children in school holidays has never been a thing the government has had to be responsible for before - now, it's "the wicked government this, the wicked government that". Personal responsibility?

I don’t think families who have been reliant solely on benefits since before the pandemic should get free school meals during the holidays as they never have, and the pandemic hasn’t even changed their income.
Families who have had their income reduced because of the pandemic (furlough, lost job) are a different case.

@redpencil77 are you that blinkered that you can't see that things change? Marriages break up, jobs are lost, unplanned pregnancies happen.

Never before have we been through a global pandemic, (in recent history), things are a lot worse due to it.

I'm not sure why you're saying open up your doors to these people, they want to live independently I'm sure.

Yes donate to the food bank, of course. Which I do whenever I shop and I'm pleased to see it's always full.

And as for the contraception crap, the children are here and they're hungry, no point in talking about contraception now.

So do you suggest that they're just left hungry? If they're parents can't feed them? You would actually see a five year old go hungry?

Or do you have another suggestion?

@HogwartsForever11 so you can't see that the people on benefits and just making ends meet have had increased costs?

Heating?

Electricity?

Extra food? Because like lots of children they will want snacks whilst at home. When they're in school it's less likely they'll be eating snacks as they're in structured lessons.

So who makes the choice between warmth and food?

@HogwartsForever11

I don’t think families who have been reliant solely on benefits since before the pandemic should get free school meals during the holidays as they never have, and the pandemic hasn’t even changed their income. Families who have had their income reduced because of the pandemic (furlough, lost job) are a different case.

Ah yes. The deserving and the undeserving poor. Because losing my job due to ill health before the pandemic means my children don't need feeding.

I honestly don't know what to say in response to some of the comments on here. Food is a basic human need for survival. Any decent society ensures that its children are fed. Any decent human being wants to ensure that the most vulnerable members of society are fed. Some of the comments on here show that we are not yet that society.

There was a news article recently which was discussing the widening gap between rich & poor since the pandemic started.

The rich have been able to save money as they've saved on; travel, fuel, eating out, leisure activities etc.

The poor have been increasing worse off as they already only just had enough to make ends meet, and often would shop to get reduced or value food items, many of which are now not available or are in greater demand. They are also now home more (WFH or furlough), and so utility bills have increased, children are home more, so eating more during the day when they'd usually be at school.

It's not always black and white.

Excellent post and so very true @hallamoo

But this isn't about free meals during the school holidays now. It's about free school meals during term time, when the kids would normally be in school and hence receiving free school meals. This is about kids missing out on free school meals because of the pandemic.

It was absolutely right that this should have been highlighted.