Free school meals - need the press to pick up on this

[MNnicknameforCVthreads]

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Shameful

umm, the vouchers can be used on the online shop?

No reason why not, and we get them and use them every week.

The ones I was getting couldn't be used online. They didn't say they couldn't be used on alcohol either so they clearly vary from school to school.

@MNnicknameforCVthreads all the facts. And specifically that this parcel is for 5 days and not 10 days.....someone else has listed for you what she received in her parcel and it is very similar and she said 5 days. The schools I govern at give similar for 5 days.

It's £15 per week per child not £30, and for 5 lunches not 3 meals a day.

I think schools normally get about £2.30 per day per child for FSM but that needs to cover all costs not just food, so wages, cost of equipment etc. Food element is normally about 80p

I am not really sure why people don't just get cash to be honest.

For £15 in Sainsburys I could buy (based on what my DCs often eat for lunch and some snacks combined with what keeps for a week, doesn't require a lot of fridge space, only needs warming through if limited cooking facilities, older kids could get themselves)...

2 x 6 pack fresh bakery rolls
1 x Warburtons Toastie loaf (to stay really fresh for the end of the week)
Sainsburys cream crackers
4 tins Sainsburys baked beans
4 tins Sainsburys spaghetti
2 tins Sainsburys soup
Block cheddar cheese
Pack 7 slices ham
Spread (butter or margerine)
Bottle no sugar squash
4 pint carton milk
2x 6 pack small petit filous fromage frais yoghurts
Pack cherry tomatoes
Pack Sainsburys own brand biscuits

Voucher definitely seems preferable.

That would feed my 4 DCs for 5 lunches. £15 each could pay for all their meals and drinks for a week.

@ineedaholidaynow Thanks. £30 for one child for lunch in school seemed like a lot!

I completely agree that these food packages are crap and definitely do not cost £15!

[quote Mumdiva99]@MNnicknameforCVthreads all the facts. And specifically that this parcel is for 5 days and not 10 days.....someone else has listed for you what she received in her parcel and it is very similar and she said 5 days. The schools I govern at give similar for 5 days.[/quote]
So do you think the parcel is adequate for 5 days @Mumdiva99?

Forgive me if I'm wrong but you seem a bit about this, are you not supportive of FSM?

*a bit angry about this

Finally hit the BBC: www.bbc.com/news/uk-55628428

It’s choice isn’t it.
It removes the choice. I look at that list and there’s little my children will eat.

It looks like it is now being looked at by the powers that be:

www.kentonline.co.uk/news/national/contents-of-some-food-parcels-sent-to-families-unacceptable-says-number-10-21017/

I'm still disgusted that these parcels were sent out like that in the first place. The people who approved them should take a look at themselves.

I sort of see why they are sending these parcels out.

They are supposed to be 5 lunches for 1 child. Not an entire weeks worth of food.

Once you remove the staffing costs of lunches they have approx 80p for meal ingredients. Which over a week is less than a fiver.

It isn’t necessarily right but the food cost/content is pretty much 5 sandwiches, fruit and yoghurt. Which is a lunch.

Perhaps instead you could choose what you want in your box a week in advance so it allows some form of choice and the order is put in a week ahead. So if you don’t like eggs you can have cheese, oranges instead of apples etc.

But Thr parcel is adequate for 5 days of lunches. That is what the kids would be offered in school so seems a valid parcel.
No it’s not worth £15, which is a weeks lunch cost. But the food is adequate.

@baffledcoconut that just adds to workload, and if schools have to do that there is just not time in the day for that.

@baffledcoconut

I sort of see why they are sending these parcels out.

They are supposed to be 5 lunches for 1 child. Not an entire weeks worth of food.

Once you remove the staffing costs of lunches they have approx 80p for meal ingredients. Which over a week is less than a fiver.

It isn’t necessarily right but the food cost/content is pretty much 5 sandwiches, fruit and yoghurt. Which is a lunch.

Right, but during a lengthy school closure with the child at home full-time the full amount (whether as vouchers or monetary payment) should come to the household and if that funds some additional meals for those kids then great.

To me this issue of diverting funding for pupils from school to the home is something that needs to be looked at urgently if school closures are to last beyond February half term. The talk of staffing costs is redundant if the kids aren't in school for the dinner staff to serve. All of the allocated £15 per child should go to the parents for the duration.

I am amazed they have offered vouchers for £15 if hampers are not used, as that is so much more than schools get to pay for food for pupils in school, about 3 times as much.

A lot of people seem to miss the point it’s for one meal for one child.

The cost of schools meals under £1 a day is actually on the food. If your child was sent 5 Apple, six rolls, two tins tuna, cucumber, Mayo. That’s five lunches easy.

I’ve seen complaints at 3 Apples, 2 bananas like erm that’s five days of one piece of fruit.

People need to look passed what’s actually in the box as one how little is that and look at it as a childs size portion for one meal x 5.

You can’t divert the staffing costs of school
Kitchen staff as they are still there preparing cooking and ordering in food for children in school, collection lunches for those who selected those etc. They are needed so can’t be furloughed.

For £14.19, I can have Deliveroo bring to my door almost the same 11 items as in the Chartwell food parcel but better quality and in much larger quantities eg a 250g punnet of baby plum tomatoes rather than 1 measly tomato. So I can get twice the amount of food (at retail prices) for less money while 2 companies still pay for their overheads and make 2 sets of profits from my purchase...

1 loaf of bread (Chartwells 1 loaf of bread)
500g penne pasta ((Chartwells a handful of pasta)
4 baking potatoes ((Chartwells 2 potatoes)
6 Gala apples (Chartwells 3 apples)
5 Fairtrade bananas (Chartwells 2 bananas)
500g bag of carrots (Chartwells 2 carrots)
250g punnet of baby plum tomatoes (Chartwells 1 tomato)
1 tin Heinz baked beans (Chartwells 1 tin Heinz baked beans)
250g cheddar cheese (Chartwells a few slices of processed cheese)
4 x Activia yoghurts ((Chartwells 3 frubes)
4 blueberry muffins (Chartwells 2 malt loaf bars)

@Alwaysandforeverhere

You can’t divert the staffing costs of school Kitchen staff as they are still there preparing cooking and ordering in food for children in school, collection lunches for those who selected those etc. They are needed so can’t be furloughed.

At our primary out of a pupil roll of around 270 pupils they're saying they can only take about 25 vulnerable and keyworker pupils. Prioritising those with ehcp plans, under social care, vulnerable, children of front line NHS workers and care home staff then other keyworkers in that order. That 26 won't even touch the number that really need to be in, it may be not all the healthcare workers have a place for their kids never mind all the supermarket staff who work round the corner and whose children attend.

High percentage of pupils on roll entitled to free school meals.

For 26 pupils you don't need all the dinner staff in, or any if the teaching staff in organise the number of fsm packed lunches required for those who qualify.

If the closures stretch in to months money per pupil absolutely should go to the home, £15 per week per child for those on fsm plus diversion of funding for resources, tech, higher utilities, to enable one parent to stay at home as they're the ones caring, teaching and feeding the DCs during school time.

I know it'll send a number of school catering companies to the wall but the stark decision is there, do we open schools quickly again or do long term changes have to take place. The taxpayer is supposed to be funding the child and their welfare, if at home that's where the money should go.

In the last lockdown schools were told if they had contracts in place they had to pay them even if they weren't getting the service, so the catering companies maybe okay but the school budgets will be destroyed

@Alwaysandforeverhere

A lot of people seem to miss the point it’s for one meal for one child.

The cost of schools meals under £1 a day is actually on the food. If your child was sent 5 Apple, six rolls, two tins tuna, cucumber, Mayo. That’s five lunches easy.

I’ve seen complaints at 3 Apples, 2 bananas like erm that’s five days of one piece of fruit.

People need to look passed what’s actually in the box as one how little is that and look at it as a childs size portion for one meal x 5.

I think people are just wondering where the extra money is going. If a budget of £15 per child is being given to making up these boxes and the boxes are only actually costing

I think the issue is you can prepare a school lunch very cost effectively. And we all know the portions are small, If you try to spend the same amount on basic end ingredients like this, it is going to be a lot less for the money. It’s not the same as ordering from deliveroo or going to Asda. Because you need to take into account the staffing and logistics costs. It’s not three quid a day for kids lunches, it’s about a pound. So if folks were told that box should contain five pounds of food per child, the reaction would be very different.

You can’t give parents the money because some will sadly use it to provide for themselves and not their kids, so it’s better to provide actual food. In addition you want to keep the staff employed.

The optics of this look terrible though, it looks like the company is profiteering and stealing food from vulnerable kids. Becayse folks are thinking the head line number is how much is spent on actual food. It’s not.