I've seen a lot of threads on here about people entitled to Free School Meals recently and a lot of posters characterising them as entitled, feckless, wanting something for nothing and potentially looking to spend the money on themselves rather than their children. I thought it may be interesting to consider this from the opposite perspective in terms of the behaviour of the private companies who provide meals in school which are paid for by parents.
I wonder how these companies are behaving now generally?
From my perspective I paid for a term's worth of meals at 16.50 per week in January. I've requested a refund but so far only had an email back saying they are very busy and are delayed processing refund requests. So this company is essentially hanging on to parents' money for meals they haven't provided. Meanwhile I am of course paying to feed my son at home-obviously I wouldn't not, but it seems a little unfair that I've already paid to feed him once.
I would imagine parents on the borderline of FSM entitlement who have to pay but are on a low income, might struggle with this amount of delay.