Volunteer blasts decision not to extend free meals
‘IT’S EVEN WORSE WITH COVID – WE ARE IN VERY PRECARIOUS TIMES’
A LEADING volunteer at a scheme which supports low income families during school holidays has hit out at the decision not to extend the free school meals vouchers scheme.
Amanda Fisher helps organise Mansfield’s School’s Out scheme, an organisation set up in 2018 to support children and families during the school breaks.
It provides food parcels and activities and has helped hundreds of families with meals, vouchers and school uniforms.
In July, volunteers supported around 200 families who needed help with food vouchers and uniforms.
But when October approached, this number had doubled to 400 and the expectation is that by Christmas it could reach as many as 600 – against a backdrop of job losses and drops in income across the country because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Last week, MPS voted on whether to extend the free school meals vouchers – which support low income families during the holidays – until Easter.
The campaign, led by Manchester United and England footballer Marcus Rashford MBE and promoted by Labour, was defeated by 322 votes to 261.
After the vote, Ms Fisher, also a
Labour councillor in Mansfield Woodhouse and portfolio holder for community safety and wellbeing on Mansfield District Council, said: “At some point in anyone’s adult life, one in four people can develop a disability or illness that makes you have time off work.
“And when you initially have children, you don’t know if you are going to have to go through this. It can happen at any time.
“It’s even worse with Covid – we are in very precarious times. If you’re on a zero-hours contract at the minute and you’ve got a young family that loss of income is devastating.”
Responding to the social media storm from Mansfield MP Ben Bradley (see below), Coun Fisher said: “With Ben Bradley, and with my politics aside, I thought it was spam at first.
“I didn’t think for one minute that a Member of Parliament would try and suggest that money was being spent in crack dens and brothels.
“So I was quite appalled at the whole angle, and the fact that he named the part of the district where this was going on.
“We at School’s Out have worked really hard to make sure people don’t feel stigmatised.
“There is always a stigma that if you are a parent and you have a low income, you don’t brag about it and you feel under pressure.
“These are children we are talking about.
“I feel like with the vote and this attitude we’re going back to Victorian times.”
■To find out more about the work of the School’s Out project, visit their Facebook page or call Amanda Fisher on 07598 112495.