Free school meals ‘being monitored’
COUNCIL officials are monitoring free school meals provision in the area after some families were left to go hungry in the first week of the new lockdown.
Problems with the free school meals provision across the UK were raised earlier this week after pictures of some of the meagre parcels provided went viral on social media. At a local level there have been several issues raised by parents who have received very little and some who have had no help at all, despite being eligible, since the start of the pandemic.
A NELC spokesperson said: “We act as an agent for a small number of local primary schools to source a school meals provider.
“We are meeting with our school meals provider on a weekly basis to ensure that children at the schools we represent who are entitled to free school meals get good quality food to keep them fit and healthy. “Our officers also have regular contact with local school heads, giving them the opportunity to raise any issues with us. In most cases, the heads contact the provider directly where issues arise, and these are usually solved on the day. “Since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic last year, the provider that we use has kept local schools well supplied despite significant challenges (often at short notice) including national restrictions and changes to the types of meals required due to Covid rules. “Headteachers have not raised the same issues with us that have been seen elsewhere nationally, and we are continuing to monitor the local offer to ensure that this does not happen.”
The council manages the contracts of a small number of local primary schools which decide individually what type of provision they would like (eg, hot or cold food from the provider, or for the school to procure vouchers).
The council said that they are available to provide help for schools who have issues with their contract, though this is rare, and in most cases issues are worked out between schools and the provider, Chartwells, directly.
Garry, whose six-year-old son attends Queen Mary Avenue Infant and Nursery School in Cleethorpes, told the Grimsby Telegraph on Wednesday that he hasn’t yet received any help since the start of the lockdown and had been told him to wait for more information this week.
A spokesperson for Queen Mary Avenue Infants and Nursery said: “Like other schools, we have had to react very quickly to changing national restrictions, often with very little notice.
“We swiftly notified parents that we were awaiting guidance from the
Department for Education about our options for free school meal provision.
“This guidance has now been received (on Wednesday) and states that the national voucher scheme, which launched during the last lockdown, is set to resume from Monday. We’ve ordered a number of food vouchers from a local supermarket in the meantime and are awaiting their arrival – parents have been updated.
“School staff have called all our families this week to check how they are getting on, and we have provided support to families struggling with food provision.”
The school is not the only one that has been waiting for more guidance on the voucher system and this has caused a delay in parents getting the help they need to feed their children. Sarah, whose 9-year-old attends Waltham Leas, told Grimsbylive: “I’m a third year student and a single mum so at the moment I’m having to pay out for the food from my student finance.
“In a way I know I’m lucky that I am still able to put food on the table, there are so many families that are in worse position that absolutely rely on this, it is them I am worried about.
“To be fair to the school they have been absolutely amazing so far with the home schooling and providing the resources that we need, I wont lie it has been difficult but they have been very helpful.
“We’ve had no free school meals help at all so far though and I’m lucky that I can afford to feed him in the short term, there will be many families who can’t.”