Free school meals

[FlatteredRhubardFool]

Not sure it's an AIBU but want to vent.

DC's term started 3 weeks ago. I've had 2 food boxes dropped off. The last one was a week ago and contained:

A rotten apple
A pre-frozen loaf of bread that went mouldy a few days ago
Cling film wrapped grated cheese that was use by last Sunday
Milk that was use by Sunday
A mini pizza that was use by Monday
Cake that was use by last Saturday

Eggs
Bananas
Oranges
Rice Krispies
Biscuits
Baked beans
Pasta
Pasta sauce
Margarine

There was also a leaflet on food standards and how each meal is supposed to contain unrefined carbs. Not sure how the white sliced bread, white pasta and Rice Krispies fits into that

I feel like I should be grateful but I feel quite insulted that dc has been provided with food that wouldn't last the week due to the short dates on things. I feel too embarrassed to contact the school.

I thought the issue of fsm had been resolved but looking at what has been provided by school it remains poor. The items themselves are ok but the use by dates are rubbish and therefore the food doesn't last the week.

When at school they get a fruit snack in the morning and a two course lunch so what they are sending is not compatible at all.

Thank goodness my other dcs' school has sent vouchers.

Yeah op listen to the posters you should be damn well grateful to receive mouldy out of date food ! When I was a child I was damn lucky to be gifted a mouldy piece of fruit !!

Your Governors should be questioning and checking the provision.
Ask your parent Governor or other politely if they know what is being provided. Show them a picture if it is poor.
Equally if you have had good service send an email to school to say so.

@Daisypaisy2 I hoped for bread that I could freeze so it lasts and I can take it out for toast or toasties. I'm not fussy about sliced bread for things like that. I bake my own bread but always have sliced in the freezer for when we've run out or when we need square bread rather than a rustic loaf or I cba to spend most of the day waiting for the dough to do two rises. My comment about the refined carbs was to do with the contrast between the leaflet about healthy eating standards they sent me and the food provided.
The potatoes that arrived yesterday were already going soft/sprouting so I've made them into homemade oven chips.
Thank goodness the supermarket delivery is coming next week. My last one was the 5th January.

I agree @Daisy. I don't want children going hungry by any means but come on, complaining about white bread and rice Krispies (provided as a snack, not a meal ) does come across as precious and complaining. Have you ever actually seen a standard school meal Op? They are far from cordon bleu quality! The boxes are designed to feed one child FIVE lunches per week not provide every single meal every single day. Op and other people receiving fsm must surely feed their own children breakfast and an evening meal so can't fruit and veggies (available cheaply) be included then? While I am truly sympathetic for those in genuine need, parents have to take some responsibility for feeding their own children at least some of the time.

@FlatteredRhubardFool

Ah, thank you but please don't apologise for them. I'm a highly qualified nurse with a degree and two post-grad diplomas in my speciality but I'm not working at the moment due to circumstances beyond my control including my now exH walking out on me and the children and my children needing me at home for various reasons. One day I'll be putting back into the system again like I did before and I won't begrudge anyone the help they need and are entitled to.

You don’t have to explain yourself, the stuff shouldn’t be mouldy! I don’t know what the answer is OP but I just can’t believe some of the things people are saying 🤯

@Bbq1

I agree *@Daisy*. I don't want children going hungry by any means but come on, complaining about white bread and rice Krispies (provided as a snack, not a meal ) does come across as precious and complaining. Have you ever actually seen a standard school meal Op? They are far from cordon bleu quality! The boxes are designed to feed one child FIVE lunches per week not provide every single meal every single day. Op and other people receiving fsm must surely feed their own children breakfast and an evening meal so can't fruit and veggies (available cheaply) be included then? While I am truly sympathetic for those in genuine need, parents have to take some responsibility for feeding their own children at least some of the time.

Do they cook school dinners using mouldy and rotten food and food that is past the use by date, do you know?

Do you see any issue with providing information on what children should eat along with food that does not meet those requirements?

Why do people like you have to pretend that being unhappy about getting an inadequate food parcel equates to not taking responsibility for feeding children some of the time?

@Bbq1 honestly I’m not even going to respond to some of the posters here as I feel like they have only acknowledged the part that suits their own narrative.

I don’t want to starve any child how bloody cruel however if your going to use strong words like that then posters better be prepared to look at the situation from both sides.

OP said white sliced bread further down in her post, white pasta... another poster referred to Rice Krispies as sugary.

I mean you cannot please everybody.
It’s a TEMPORARY measure too!

Perhaps money management needs to be taught here... because those kind of things I would buy my own child to eat!

@Joinedjustforthispost

Yeah op listen to the posters you should be damn well grateful to receive mouldy out of date food ! When I was a child I was damn lucky to be gifted a mouldy piece of fruit !!

The OP didn't receive any out of date food. The apple was rotten, but OP received the box on the previous Thursday, and some items only lasted a few days before being out of date. This is also what happens when you get an order from Sainsbury's, Tesco or anywhere else.

Perhaps money management needs to be taught here... because those kind of things I would buy my own child to eat!

Perhaps you need to be taught about nutrition then. It sounds to me as if OP knows considerably more about it than you do. She’s already pointed out how much better she could do with £15 in vouchers.

@Daisypaisy2 and you haven't read your own narrative? The irony is hilarious!

Yeah she said white bread when comparing it to the information received in the box about unrefined carbs.

A DIRECT COMPARISON WHICH YOU MISSED!

@VinylDetective But OP doesn’t have a £15 voucher. The vouchers have been replaced.

So there’s no use dreaming of “could”.

@Daisypaisy2

Perhaps money management needs to be taught here... because those kind of things I would buy my own child to eat!

Yeah, sounds about right 🙄!

Get yourself on a nutrition course, you'd benefit greatly!

@Bookwords who going to fund it? You and others need to shop within your means. Let’s be blunt OP would prefer the vouchers like many others so they can cover other meals not just x5 lunches a week.

I don’t think you should be telling me what I should be doing.

If I were you I wouldn’t be encouraging others to be so heavily reliant on a food parcel nor a £15 voucher.

[quote Daisypaisy2]@VinylDetective But OP doesn’t have a £15 voucher. The vouchers have been replaced.

So there’s no use dreaming of “could”.[/quote]
Exactly my point. She got a crappy box of rubbish. Had she got the equivalent in voucher form she could have fed her children nutritious food. Incidentally fiasco has been such a disaster that vouchers are now being used again.

• Had she got the equivalent in voucher form

It’s not the equivalent is it? Because if it was why aren’t the government continuing?

There’s no debate on this you can get more than what’s in the box for £15 voucher.

ITS NOT FOR THAT though. It’s to cover LUNCH alone.

I give up. There’s no arguing with stupid. 🤷‍♀️

@Daisypaisy2 I shop within my means, I've no young children, I own two properties and save £2k a month, I've got a healthy pension, my DH has a great final salary pension?

But I don't pay my taxes to pay for profiteering for people to make money out of people who need benefits.

You have no clue about nutrition and need to educate yourself, or you'll be a drain on the NHS with health conditions.

@Daisypaisy2 they are paying £15 for the boxes and getting £4 of food for the end user!

FFS!

How hard of understanding are you?

It's not that the boxes are cheaper, they cost £15 but they are giving food worth £4!

It's called profiteering

You’ve got more patience than me @Bookwords.

FSM are supposed to be main meals. The use of the word "lunch" has shifted expectations I think.

@TheFallenMadonna that is so absolutely right!

These children are not having hotpot and lasagne in the evening, their main hot meal is eaten during lunch.

That's a good point about the fsm being the main meal of the day. Perhaps some posters would like to give examples of what main means they would make for one dc with the following ingredients bearing in mind that the provided items are supposed to be for complete means with no need to add anything else from home.

Eggs
Individual flora portions
Packs of 3 biscuits
Apples
2 bananas
An orange
I tin baked beans
Grated cheese
White sliced bread
3 small baking potatoes
Milk
Rice Krispies
Half a cucumber
Small punnet tomatoes
Packs of 2 crackers
Pasta
Pasta sauce

That's a combination of boxes to some extent to give more choice for nutritious main meals.

Maybe I'm just not using my imagination here 🤷🏼‍♀️

We usually have sandwiches or crackers at home but of course dc get a hot meal at school. In the evening we will have things like:
Homemade pizza (I make the base and the sauce)
Homemade chips or wedges
Roast dinner (without meat as we are veggie)
Vegetarian lasagne
Pasta bake
Veggie burgers
Jacket potatoes
Macaroni cheese
Homemade soup
Apples crumble
Sticky toffee or ginger cake
Homemade cookies
Homemade brownies
Toasties/panini
Fajitas/wraps/tacos
Buffet type dinner
Veggie sausage and mash
Fake chicken and mushroom pie, Yorkshire puddings etc.

I make most things from scratch except any fake meat type stuff and pastry.

I manage my money very well thank you and am not reliant on these food boxes but many are, that's my point. For some families this is all they will get for their dc's lunch.

My 2 children are both on FSM

For the first week off lockdown in jan we were asked to Collect a food hamper when we picked up the reading books for the week

All the food was fresh, not always the best quality canned foods but no issues with dates

On the second week they rang to ask if we wanted one, I just explained that I was very grateful but would prefer a voucher that I can use in Asda online so we can have a choice

They agreed to sign us up for vouchers from the 3rd week and we received 3 weeks of vouchers to take us up to the feb half term

This was great as Asda accept them for online deliveries so I've got a big shop coming next Tuesday

We can manage without them but it is a massive help as we're spending more on food, printer cartridge and home school supplies

If I didn't ask I wouldn't have been offered the vouchers so it is worth asking the school

A few years ago primary schools didn’t provide hot food in the main and a fsm was a sandwich, a piece of fruit, a yogurt and maybe a snack. Do they have to provide a hot dinner now?

In the main?