Mum tells of her nightmare after store refuses meals voucher
A MUM said she was left embarrassed after a Tesco store refused to take the free school meal voucher provided by her council to pay for food for a fortnight.
Lisa Pitman said she had to abandon her trolley of food for son Luke, 10, after waiting an hour in a queue.
“It was a nightmare and so embarrassing,” said Lisa, 27.
“The letter says it can be used in Tesco or Asda and my nearest shop is Tesco.
“It was so embarrassing, I had five staff in Tesco around me and a queue of customers behind me. I queued for ages because it is so busy. I had to leave all the shopping and go to Asda. That’s about half an hour walk away. I had to go to Asda and start again.”
Although the letter says the vouchers are redeemable at either Tesco or Asda, the council later clarified that parents had to check which voucher had been issued.
She said she took the voucher and the letter from Vale of Glamorgan council with her to the Tesco store on Port Road, Barry, but the voucher in lieu of payment was refused at the till.
With schools shut, councils across Wales are still providing free school meals to those eligible in a variety of ways, including vouchers, bank transfers and “grab and go” packed lunches distributed from “hub” schools. That will carry on through the Easter holiday, weekends and bank holidays, paid for by the Welsh Government.
Vale of Glamorgan council is stopping providing grab bag meals. Instead the parent or carer of every child entitled to a free school meal will now receive a voucher to the value of £39 a fortnight – the equivalent of £3.90 a day. They have been sent letters saying these can be redeemed at Tesco or Asda stores.
Lisa said son Luke, who has just finished year six at Holton Primary in Barry, had been getting a cold packed lunch delivered to the house since the schools shut.
A Vale of Glamorgan council spokesman said that although the letter clearly says the vouchers can be used at Tesco or Asda, this is not true and parents have to check whether they have been given a Tesco or an Asda voucher.
“The council is not aware of the detail of this case, but the vouchers are specifically for use in either Tesco or Asda as they are issued by one of these supermarkets.
“The recipient cannot choose which outlet they would prefer to shop in. This fact is indicated in the correspondence sent to parents and on the vouchers themselves.”
A Tesco spokesman said: “We are very happy to accept these vouchers and our Barry superstore has redeemed a number of these in recent days. Unfortunately one customer this morning only had the portion of the email with the Asda e-voucher and not the Tesco e-voucher, so we were unable to accept it because it was for a different retailer.”