Are measly meals proof free market isn’t always best?
■ Private firms have been accused of profiteering after £30 free school meal parcels were shown to be worth just a fiver (Metro, Wed).
This seems just another example of private companies who operate to make as much profit as possible with no regard for any health, safety or welfare issues. Basically, it’s the same as most companies who run things that should be run by public sector organisation.
Kev, Suffolk
■ Companies will always try and make a profit. The government should have always given the vouchers straight to the people in need – they were meant to get £30 of food, not a bag of fresh air! For £30 I could fill my freezer from empty to full, get fresh produce and still have change. I’m so angry at companies such as Chartwells, especially when the boss of parent company Compass Group, Dominic Blakemore, was paid £4.7million last year.
Lesley Mannion, via email
■ Ministers have said they will investigate. Maybe they should start with the MPs who scrapped the voucher system that allowed parents to buy their own food following unfounded claims they were being misused to buy alcohol or cigarettes.
I would have thought it wouldn’t be too difficult to create vouchers that are only valid for use with food and nonalcoholic drinks. But given the blunders over Brexit and Covid, it’s no surprise they can’t manage this properly either.
Matthew, Birmingham
■ I have no objection to food vouchers for poorer families but please put restrictions on them. I work in a supermarket and saw the abuse of these vouchers last time – people buying toys and video games obviously didn’t need them to feed their children.
Angela, via email
■ That organisations could have the bare-faced cheek to profit at the expense of our children is tantamount to child abuse.
Let’s face it, the integrity of people in all aspects of life has taken a nosedive. Is it the case that we are this disgusting depth already and that the right
circumstances can bring it out of us? Or is it that we live among wolves and must always be on our guard? The latter is proving to be the case more and more.
Mike, Dagenham
■ This scandal is typical of all government contracting, where socalled free-market forces encourage profiteering at taxpayers’ expense, whether it is supplying food, medicines, transport or arms.
Ted, Reading
■ My concern regarding free school meals is that packs of items such as cheese, ham and bread look like they are being opened and split to maximise profits – with possible contamination from human contact.
Anything provided should come fully sealed and untouched. You wouldn’t buy a packet of cheese in the supermarket if it was wrapped in a bit of cling film with no sell-by date.
Karen, Newcastle
■ Children’s minister Vicky Ford said she would increase funding to parcels, further lining the pockets of Chartwells, whose owner Compass Group has as its
biggest shareholder BlackRock investments, which pays Tory former chancellor George Osborne £650,000 a year for working one day a week.
I don’t think there should be any increase. I think Chartwells needs to provide much better quality food packs. I want to see much better packs from Chartwells and compensation demanded for those they have underfunded. Alternatively, give the job to somebody who would do it much better – a caring organisation.
Elisa White, via email
■ Back in October we were disgusted by the Tories when they voted against extending free school meals.
Following public outrage and the campaigning work of footballer Marcus Rashford, that decision was reversed but now they have decided that giving a Tory mate a lucrative contract would be the best thing to do in this situation.
The food parcels provided by Chartwells – part of the food provider giant Compass Group, whose outgoing chairman sat on David Cameron’s business advisory group and gave the Tory party a £10,000 donation – are pitiful and just another example of Tory cronyism.
Chartwells’ profile reads: ‘Nourishing young bodies and minds with exceptional food and learning.’ I think we’re all questioning that now and most of us would disagree with it.
Ask yourself why the Tories would pay a company £30 to give a struggling family £5 worth of food. Ask yourself why they wouldn’t just give that money directly.
Katherine, London (NHS Dietitian)