Are they meant to have spoonful of beans a day?
MUMS’ ANGER AT STANDARD OF FREE FOOD PARCELS
TWO Nottingham mums have spoken of their shock at the quality of the free food parcels they received to feed their children while home from school.
Pictures had emerged on social media from a Twitter user showing a small amount of food including fruit and vegetables, a few tinned items and bread.
The parcels should have been a £30 supply of food to help feed children for two weeks - £15 per week.
But parents have shown the contents of the parcels and most have found the items add up to around £5 or less.
Carla Parker, of Clifton, said it was “a shock” to see inside the parcel she received for her five-year-old son at Glapton Academy.
The 40-year-old said: “We had a loaf of bread, a tin of beans, a tin of spaghetti hoops, a tin of sweetcorn, two tins of tuna, two potatoes, a quarter of a cucumber, two apples, one orange and two sachets of yogurt.
“My daughter, who is 11 and goes to Farnborough Academy, received pretty much the same.
“I was confused when I went to pick them up and the staff said ‘it was a shame’, and ‘maybe there would be more next week’ but when I looked inside I realised why.
“I couldn’t believe it, it was such a shock - are they meant to have a spoonful of beans every day?
“I’m a single mum-of-two and cannot work, but I could definitely get more from £15 doing my own shopping.
“My friends were the same, all felt disgusted by it.”
Carla said it means she will have to spend extra money out of her budget to top up the items.
She added: “The voucher scheme we had before helped in a big way and I could pick what my children liked and what they needed.
“If it’s going to be the same next week, I’ll have to ask family members to help.
“The stuff we got can’t be worth more than a fiver.”
Labour MP for Nottingham East, Education Secretary Gavin Williamson has since announced schools will be able to ditch free school meal hampers and replace them with vouchers from Monday.
Catherine Ward, of Highbury Vale, has three children who attend Cantrell Primary School and received three of the same food parcels containing similar items to Carla.
“Some of the potatoes weren’t good so I couldn’t even use them, the apples were bruised and it was basically just the ends of the cucumber,” she said.
“It feels unfair to parents - it’s a struggle with three children all at home and some are worse off than
me.”
Catherine agreed the vouchers would work better for her and after seeing other parents’ pictures, said “it just feels like a waste of time”.
Schools will have the option to continue using local services but Mr Williamson yesterday told the Commons Education Select Committee: “As a dad myself, I thought ‘ how could a family in receipt of that really be expected to deliver five nutritious meals as is required?’ It’s just not acceptable.”
Mr Williamson said it had been made clear to Chartwells, the company that provided the pictured parcel, as well as the entire education food sector, that such behaviour “will not be tolerated”.
A spokesperson for Chartwells said: “We have had time to investigate the picture circulated on Twitter. For clarity this shows five days of free school lunches (not 10 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.”