Fury over free school meals food packages
SCHOOLS will be able to ditch controversial free school meal hampers and replace them with vouchers from Monday, Education Secretary Gavin Williamson announced.
It comes after pictures were shared on social media of meagre-looking parcels, which some people estimated contained just a few pounds-worth of supplies.
The company behind one of the Free School Meals boxes has said the pictures circulating do “not reflect the specification of one of our hampers”, and apologised for falling short.
Hyndburn MP Sara Britcliffe said she agreed that parcels highlighted were “unacceptable”.
In a statement, she said: “I was appalled to see them. No family should ever go hungry, so if you know of anyone struggling they should seek help.
“As ever, I and my office are always able to assist any local residents in difficulty.”
Lancashire County Council told the Observer that the cost of their fiveday parcel is £11.70, equating to the daily funding provided by the government for a free school meal.
The alternatives are a daily packed lunch bag, or a £15 per week voucher for parents to spend at the supermarket.
Our readers shared their own experiences this week on the Observer’s Facebook page.
Faye Alexander said: “Mine was slightly better to be fair but still not £15 worth of food, but much appreciated as definitely enough for lunches here.”
Rishton Labour councillor Kate Walsh claimed that some packs had been poor value.
She said: “It is not acceptable – no child should go hungry. The government should continue to give out the vouchers as they promised.”
Lucy Hardwick, of Maundy Relief, said: “We have heard about the issues with the parcels provided to families in lieu of the vouchers for those children on Free School Meals. If this becomes an issue locally it will put extra pressure on local food banks but we have an excellent ‘Food Solutions Network’ in Hyndburn and would encourage anyone who is struggling to refer themselves to Hyndburn Hub.”
In a statement on Tuesday the government said that schools/local authorities used their own contractors to distribute food, and these companies are not chosen by them.
At Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday, Boris Johnson condemned the images as “disgraceful”, after Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer asked him if he would be happy with his children living off the packages.
However, Mr Starmer then went on to claim that the packages were in fact broadly comparable with the government’s own guidance.
An LCC spokesman said: “We offer schools three options to offer as comprehensive a service to schools as possible during the lockdown period.
“The school selects which option they prefer as they are best-placed to know how to meet the needs of their pupils.”
A spokesperson for Chartwells, which provided one of the food packages criticised on social media, said: “We have had time to investigate the picture circulated on Twitter. For clarity this shows five days of free school lunches (not ten days) and the charge for food, packing and distribution was actually £10.50 and not £30 as suggested.
“However, in our efforts to provide thousands of food parcels a week at extremely short notice we are very sorry the quantity has fallen short in this instance.
“Our ten-day hampers typically include a wide variety of nutritious food items to support the provision of lunches for children.
“We are further enhancing our food parcels following the Department for Education’s additional allowance of £3.50 per week per child in line with nutritional guidelines, in addition we welcome the DofE procurement notice for schools issued today.
“We would like to thank Marcus Rashford and the Permanent Under Secretary of State for Children and Families, Vicky Ford, for their collaboration as we navigate these difficult times.”