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.

@warmandtoasty2day

tin hat firmly on, if you can't feed the children you have already, stop having any more.

Wish we'd thought of that. What about the ones who lose jobs /partners /get I'll/ are affected by the pandemic? Do they just send them back?

As I said further upthread , anyone who thinks people sit and plan to have children because in six years they will get a loaf of bread and a bit of cheese Monday-friday is dreaming.

The anger should be directed at those who have bled the coffers dry, those that have failed to deliver on what they have been paid for

So much this.

Providing the money to ensure children are fed is a drop in the ocean when compared to money being spent/wasted elsewhere and supporting children brings its own benefits when they grow up to be functional members of society. When it comes to changing outcomes for children, early and focused interventions are key. They are proven to improve outcomes for the children they help and that benefits all of us in the long run. A good example would be SureStart, it was absolutely decimated by the Conservatives despite it being key to the support and development of so many families.

@ivfbeenbusy

It’s only changed because Marcus Rashford pushed for it. It took a footballer to fight for children to actually be able to eat, in the 21st century Britain. Bonkers.

Would be interesting to see how much Marcus and his fellow professional top flight foootballers on £100,000s per week donate to food banks/feeding deprived kid's

Sure I read a statistic somewhere that even if they donated 1% of their salary it would raise tens of millions of pounds per year

Eh? So we , as women , as mother's , as people shouldn't have to pay for other people's kids but young footballers should? Right-o.

Footballers wages are obscene but I think Marcus is doing a pretty good job.

And yes they should but they clearly can't or don't. So then what? Do we just refuse to help them and say sorry you should have fed them?

Going by a lot of the rubbish posted here and elsewhere, a fair few people would see children left hungry on principle. It offends them so very, very much to think of someone getting something for nothing that they would genuinely rather a child be hungry than someone they deem undeserving get help. It's really sad to learn just how many people think like this. But- once they reveal themselves, at least you know them for the grubby minded, mean, petty things they are are don't have to waste another second of your life giving any weight at all to anything they say.

@Wheresmykimchi I wasn't referring to children on FSM as I'm sure you're well aware. I was referring to parents who can't even get their shit together enough to feed their kids so the children are relying on school for basics such as food.

Not about parents who have to rely on food banks or churches or have to reach out to organisations for support but those who don't care enough to make sure their children are fed.

It's a cycle of generational neglect and it's a pretty shit society that we're living in if we allow this to go on.

Some are completely ignorant of the fact that community workers do a huge amount of this out with school hours (I am one before PPs start firing questions on a vendetta to justify the conditional support they're providing ).
We get extra funding in the school holidays to provide hot, nutritious meals because we know there is a gap left for many children who are entitled to free school meals. Hunger and need don't just stop outside of term time.

I'm not in the business of judging other people for their circumstances, we've enough Thatcherites around for that. If people need help and we can provide something relevant, then that's what we do.

And for what it's worth I'm all for the vouchers. Benefits are far too low as it is and I know my shopping bill has increased hugely over the last few months. Times are hard.

But those kids who need it most will still be neglected. They'll still go without, throwing £15 that they aren't going to see at them won't make one iota of differences to their circumstances. It's just ignoring a bigger issue that's been avoided for decades.

But parents really ought to be able to provide 5 extra lunches over the course of a solitary week for their DC, they really should.

^this

noblegiraffe you might want to re-read what I actually posted as opposed to the spin you chose to put on it - only too glad to respond to comments on the original version though

Do you honestly believe parents sit there taking their free hand out of loaves and a bit of cheese going yesss lads we didn't have to pay for that lunch today - someone else will sort out my kids?

I can't comment on the words used in private homes, but I don't have to "believe" the overall attitude - I've seen it all too often through work, and IME it's sadly a lot more common than some would perhaps like to believe

Would be interesting to see how much Marcus and his fellow professional top flight foootballers on £100,000s per week donate to food banks/feeding deprived kid's

All ManU players are expected to support the United Foundation, a charity organisation set up by the club in order to provide community and education outreach service. Players are expected to donate time, not just money, and a lot of other clubs have similar endeavours.

As for Marcus Rushford himself, he has a long history of charitable and community work. Not just money but time, including personally delivering care packages to homeless people, learning sign language in order to communicate with more people, championing child literacy, visiting sick children in hospital, offering support to victims of the Manchester Arena bombing, and more. I suggest you Google him, he really is a remarkable young man.

Here’s what you said Puzzled

Better still that some parents think a little more about their responsibilities, which is all too easy to avoid while someone else is paying

So you want to stop feeding hungry kids in order to teach parents a lesson about personal responsibility?

How else should that be read?

@Crystalclair

I know there are many genuine cases of families not being able to feed their kids. But, let's face it, there are a huge majority of family who are abusing this system.

I'm a single parent, I'm unable to work because of the pandemic and am not entitled to furlough or SEISS grant. Currently I survive on very little and have no savings. Yet I can still afford to feed my children. So many people I've heard complaining about their kids going hungry are usually the ones taking photos of their kids around the Christmas tree with a shit load of presents, or using Uber eats as their kids 'need a McDonalds'

Pisses me off.

Good for you. Would you like a medal?

You remind me of a mum I know. Single parent on benefits. Spent the last few years telling everyone who she thinks will give her sympathy how hard it it on benefits and how she has to scrimp and save and budget every penny.
Then telling other single parents who are struggling that they should just budget better, and she can't see how we struggle so much or need fsm because she's never needed them.

What she fails to mention is that is on the old benefits system, so not subject to the 2 child limit or benefit cap. She was lucky enough to get a HA house, her rent is roughly half of mine and her house twice the size. Oh, and one of those people she moaned to about how hard life was, felt so sorry for her hes been giving her "a few hundred" pounds per month to "help out"

She's one of those Mums you'll see on social media spending hundreds of pounds at Christmas, having weekly takeaways and always doing her house up. Then people assume benefits are the life of Riley and wonder why the rest of us struggle.

Sorry. Rant over. But finding this out about her recently has really fucked me off.

Would be interesting to see how much Marcus and his fellow professional top flight foootballers on £100,000s per week donate to food banks/feeding deprived kid's

Wouldn't it just? For all I know he could be digging deep - though I doubt it because we'd probably have heard all about that too - but overall it's so much easier to enjoy virtue-signalling to a fan base than to actually do something practical

My dd does get fsm, picked up my weekly ration earlier today, good job it is only adding to what I have anyway and I'm not relying on it to feed her for the week as it was rubbish as a selection however I don't expect the government to provide meals during the holiday, it is and always has been my responsibility. If anything I get very annoyed by all the people jumping on the bandwagon because there are now "deserving" poor due to covid rather than people like me who are living on benefits because I'm a carer for a disabled person. Fight for better benefits, fight for a decent basic universal income, fighting for free school dinners during a half term holiday is just an insult and basically reinforces that we are all scum who neglect our children and don't feed them.

For all I know he could be digging deep - though I doubt it because we'd probably have heard all about that too

See my post upthread and then pay a visit to Google.

[quote AttackOfTheFloppyKnob]@Wheresmykimchi I wasn't referring to children on FSM as I'm sure you're well aware. I was referring to parents who can't even get their shit together enough to feed their kids so the children are relying on school for basics such as food.

Not about parents who have to rely on food banks or churches or have to reach out to organisations for support but those who don't care enough to make sure their children are fed.

It's a cycle of generational neglect and it's a pretty shit society that we're living in if we allow this to go on.[/quote]
Right....but FSM kids (some) and the parents who can't feed their kids are the same. Social services would never take a child for not being fed properly , sadly.

How else should that be read?

Exactly as I wrote it - the comments about parental responsibility were mine and stand alone, but the extrapolation was your own

Sorry, but again and again on these threads I've seen your posts attempting to suggest that someone said something they didn't at all, and I don't rise to that kind of thing

Leaving aside the arguments people have for or against feeding children through holiday periods, I would guess they have already finalised arrangements for half term, so are leaving them in place, but those during term were found to be unsuitable so have been changed.

Why should there be anything in place at all in holidays? You do realise that the buck ultimately stops at you...feeding your child is your responsibility and yours alone. Having additional support in place during school term, great, but that's a bonus, not what you should feel is a right.

the comments about parental responsibility were mine and stand alone,

So you don’t want to stop feeding hungry children to teach their parents a lesson about personal responsibility? What was the point in your comment then?

Right....but FSM kids (some) and the parents who can't feed their kids are the same. Social services would never take a child for not being fed properly , sadly

There is a chronic shortage of foster carers which doesn't help.

Are you doing anything to help with the problem that you profess to care about so much?

[quote AttackOfTheFloppyKnob]@Wheresmykimchi I wasn't referring to children on FSM as I'm sure you're well aware. I was referring to parents who can't even get their shit together enough to feed their kids so the children are relying on school for basics such as food.

Not about parents who have to rely on food banks or churches or have to reach out to organisations for support but those who don't care enough to make sure their children are fed.

It's a cycle of generational neglect and it's a pretty shit society that we're living in if we allow this to go on.[/quote]
Agreed.

They should just provide free lunch for all children of school age. Make it standard no arguments no but I’m £2 over the limit for free meals etc just standard every child gets a lunch.

I think all children who where entitled to free lunches ks1 foundation stage should of been included in the food parcels/vouchers. The stigma becomes attached because it’s not for everyone. If every child had lunch provided it would just be standard.

@SweetPetrichor

Why should there be anything in place at all in holidays? You do realise that the buck ultimately stops at you...feeding your child is your responsibility and yours alone. Having additional support in place during school term, great, but that's a bonus, not what you should feel is a right.

Because feeding children is always more important than punishing their parents. Because even if you're coming at it from a purely financial PoV, the health and social implications of children going unfed end up costing much more than extending FSM ever would. Because it is fucking stupid to think that the parents who are feckless and neglectful and are choosing not to prioritise their children's needs will ever be changed in their ways by attempted shaming by people like you. Because it is insane that people get angrier about FSM than money for things like garden bridges and millenium domes and contracts with ferry companies which don;t own any ferries.

Children should not have to suffer more to make people like you feel the satisfaction of sticking it to their irresponsible parents. They are people, not acceptable collateral damage.

The children who slip through the crack are the ones whose parents income have been drastically cut through the pandemic but aren’t entitled to FSM. Nothing is being done for these children.

My income was annihilated during the first lockdown, I lost half of my normal working hours but I am not entitled to FSM whereas some parents on UC whose income hasn’t changed we’re entitled to help . Thankfully I had savings to fall back on but I can imagine many people in my position wouldn’t have.

I’d like to see help for these children aswell.