Free Meals

MissAdventure

Then we could start on pensions.
Ensure it isn't spent on weed, handbags, wine or bingo.

Don't check my cupboards!
At least I'm no good at bingo.

I have since learned that my eldest daughter, never had any lunch when she was in secondary school as she refused to go through the humiliation of being separated out to receive these.
That should never have happened but I'm sure it did, quite frequently, Franbern.

I remember a friend telling me years ago that she had a child in her school whose mother did not apply for free school meals, would not even discuss it, but the child used to arrive with a packed lunch of one round of sliced white bread spread with tomato ketchup. Nothing else. She and the dinner ladies made sure they did give him a proper meal. But what happened in the holidays?

Then we could start on pensions.
Ensure it isn't spent on weed, handbags, wine or bingo.

SilentGames

Just an idea. Maybe they should take away the child benefits and massively improve school meals with the money so that all children are fed daily. This would ensure the children were fed well and the money isn’t spent on other things.

So how would you decide which parents to take the CB away from? Me, I’d bring back the workhouse, that’d learn ‘em

I'm fine with the current set up, thanks.

It's the holidays that are the problem, though, SilentGames when some children who would receive a free school meal may not get a proper meal at all.

My D has had food parcels/ boxes diverted to those in dire need. When she first took on her GC she was inundated with offers of food parcels but her cupboards/ fridge-freezer were already full to the gunnels with enough to choke a goat.
Kind and thoughtful as it was, she doesn't need extra and the children don't need the food during the school holidays so she crossed herself off the list.

She does have a well paid job and didn't think it right to accept something that many others needed more desperately. The kids aren't huge eaters either.

Just an idea. Maybe they should take away the child benefits and massively improve school meals with the money so that all children are fed daily. This would ensure the children were fed well and the money isn’t spent on other things.

This is the official Marcus Rashford petition.

petition.parliament.uk/petitions/554276

Signed.

I thought it was just me (and all of the staff in sainsburys) who had problems.

I heard there were problems for some over the summer Miss A. I also heard that some schools exchanged them for vouchers they bought themselves and then battled with the system to get reimbursed to save parents the stress.( these were the lazy idle teachers you understand who couldn’t care less about the children)

I couldn't get any of my vouchers to be accepted at sainsbury's, so they never even actually got used.

MissAdventure

Isn't it strange, attendance allowance, when discussed here, was encouraged to be used as its recipient sees fit.

That was because it was seen as a worthy deserving person - a GNer.

MissAdventure

My grandson gets free school meals, and I couldn't feel less mortified, to be honest.

I expect you are doing cartwheels of delight at whatever circumstances led to this. What would free vouchers be used for though? According to the charming MP for Mansfield brothels and crack cocaine.

Isn't it strange, attendance allowance, when discussed here, was encouraged to be used as its recipient sees fit.

Oh! I’ve just read what you actually said, rather than what I thought you said.????

MissAdventure

My grandson gets free school meals, and I couldn't feel less mortified, to be honest.

Why mortified? In my opinion in a civilised society, that has established that its citizens should have of right, shelter, education, health needs and adequate nutrition, that society has an obligation to care for all its citizens.

I was listening to a single parent (male) of 3 school age children ( he was WFH on a low wage) whose children were entitled to FSM. He said the food vouchers meant he could afford a cheap printer and another tablet so they could all manage whilst he was also homeschooling. I don’t think that he was misusing them at all or that he didn't need them. I’m not going to judge anyway - and certainly not whilst multi millionaire MPs eat in subsidised Hof C restaurants or used the EOTHO scheme in the summer.

My grandson gets free school meals, and I couldn't feel less mortified, to be honest.

I would have been mortified if my kids had had to have free food given to them!!!! I remember being so hard up one time i had to ration what we all ate but no one ever knew and the kids never ever went hungry. My OH and i might have done on a couple of occasions but we just drank lots of tea. He worked full time but i was a stay at home mum. So it was hard at times, but we never got into debt either. Having said all that, there were not the tech items around in those days, we didn't feel hard done by if we didn't go on holiday, we only had one car so he could get to work very early or get home very late after buses had finished running. Now adays i feel sorry for people in this situation, MH, poverty and being hard done by is worn like a badge by some, not all, but i know people, some, in my extended family who live the high life on benefits, and one who during the previous lock down used the vouchers towards paying for childrens food to buy normal amount of food each week, then used the money saved to put aside for xmas. So in my mind she didn't really need the vouchers issued during the lockdown. Some of her friends also did the same thing. There are real and false needs in all situations i guess.

Agreed FC on both counts.

I don't think that Cummings's is bothered one iota about the 'optics'.
He's no Alistair Campbell.

Deletion ? What did I mean - oh yes deliction

Do you really think so River? He’s still being mocked months later over his method of testing his eyesight. I think he just doesn’t care- we’re all part of some gigantic experiment he’s playing out for his own deletion and nefarious purposes. He’ll do what he wants, when he wants until he’s tired of the game. When ( not if) he finally goes and the knives come out, there will be a bloodbath I’m sure.

suzie Cummings is very media-savvy - surely he can see how very badly this is playing out.

I'd somehow forgotten about Johnson - we don't see much of him!

It's all Sunak, Hancock and that dope Jenrick.