Free Meals

Signed it.
Thank you for the link OP.

I certainly have!

But the original post was not about free school meals! I wonder how many posters have clicked on the link?

Free school meals are provided in most if not all schools nanna8.

Where are you, nanna8?

I am amazed that children go hungry in a country like the UK. Absolutely gobsmacked. Very,very rare here and I always thought we were less 'developed' Changed my mind I can tell you- parents look after their kids here except for very,very rare cases (usually drug addiction) and then the state would move in. Some kids get their school uniforms, outings and books free but not food, never that.

Good post 52bright

m.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=KHdzkBhyweY

52bright, that is a spectacularly good post. Thank you.

Iam64 your post makes a lot of sense, my gd also worked as a trainee chef in a restaurant and it closed and she lost her placement. Still she is young, still training and I hope there will be a job for her somewhere in the future. The eat out scheme in my mind was a complete waste of money and helped to fuel the rise in cases, as did all the uni students going back. I think we are going to have a very tough Christmas when people start meeting up and students go home.

It's great to see so many posts from people who have direct experience of working with families where the wheel came off and state support should have been easily available.
52bright- I share your incredulity about Eat out to Help Out.

We ate out under the scheme once, to support our nephew who is a chef at a local restaurant and feared covid would cause them to close. I don't want to moan because Irealise Rishi Sunak wanted to support hospitality but, the rise in the virus has to be connected to people using the scheme, as well as schools/uni going back. A better use of all that money could have been extending the furlough scheme rather than paying people (like me) to have a cheap meal

Terrible grammar at the end of my post Not 'I did used to teach in it' Should have said 'I have taught in it'

Like many posters here I have worked in schools where I have witnessed children living in extreme poverty. I have seen situations where the children are poor because of drug/alcohol/gambling addictions. People up to the eyes in debt, sometimes because of poor decisions and choices, sometimes not. There have been people left suddenly and unexpectedly poor through job loss, sickness and death.

Whether the poverty is the parents 'fault' or not, one thing was always the same, the children suffered, sometimes hunger, often stigma and almost always in life chances and opportunities.

We are the 6th richest country in the world. None of our children should be suffering hunger and it beggars belief that successful people, getting expensive meal and drink subsidies themselves can vote against giving poor children a free lunch. I am also at a loss to understand, as we all pay the same percentages of taxes, why Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland's poor children can receive this subsidy but not England's poor.

I do understand that all of the help given out during this cv crisis is going to have to be paid for, but if businesses
could be heavily subsidised by government during the Eat out to Help out scheme, why can we not subsidise the poorest children amongst us? When I had a £16 steak during the EOTHO scheme, it cost the government £8. Feeding hungry kids is a lot cheaper than that.

In my naivety I used to think that MPs were there to support the interests of their own constituents. Blyth Valley, one of the poorest areas in the country, returned a Conservative MP to parliament for the first time in its history at the last election. I wonder how this MP thought he was supporting the interests of the area he was paid to represent when he voted down the Bill to feed poor kids? He should enjoy his own subsidised meals while he can, I doubt he will see a second term in office. [Sorry for the long post. I have never made a political point on Gransnet before but I am so astonished at this particular Bill's rejection, voted down by comfortably off people who enjoy all sorts of subsidies themselves, that I felt I had to post. No personal axe to grind; I do not live in the area I used as an example but I did used to teach in it)

Iam64

GagaJo. - thanks for the poem, which I'm afraid brought tears to my eyes. I spent my working life working with families like the one in the poem. I'm still in touch with some of the children, some now in their late 40's and without exception in full support of the campaign to provide food throughout the year, for those who qualify for FSM
They, like me, find it hard to believe children still go hungry, as they did.

My time in Northumberland schools (and Suffolk actually, also pockets of great deprivation there) was illuminating. I have many times given students food, money and even sanitary products out of my own pocket. I have a vivid memory of one girl I 'lent' money to for lunch, never expecting to get it back, paying me back a couple of weeks later. Bless her. Lovely girl.

I even had a homeless student once, years ago. The Welfare Officer did nothing. Eventually, I took her to the Homeless Officer at the council and after another 2 or 3 months, she was housed (after she turned 16). Officially, the parents responsibility. That didn't help her, living on the streets. Having to beg for sofas to sleep on.

Volunteers, small businesses are stepping in where the government has failed.

There are posts on my FB page where small cafe owners, pubs etc, who must themselves be struggling at the moment, are offering free lunches to local needy children.

GagaJo. - thanks for the poem, which I'm afraid brought tears to my eyes. I spent my working life working with families like the one in the poem. I'm still in touch with some of the children, some now in their late 40's and without exception in full support of the campaign to provide food throughout the year, for those who qualify for FSM
They, like me, find it hard to believe children still go hungry, as they did.

Stephenmarra

GagaJo Great post (even though I hade to magnify and find reading glasses) it shows one of many reasons why it's so important to give access to these meals.

If you tap on it, it should come up in another window and you can then enlarge it, Stephenmarra

Shared with permission from the author:
Dear Gavin and the DfE,
Thank you for writing to me again. To be honest, I almost missed it, what with it being 5.50pm on the last day of the apocalypse, I mean Term 1.
You had previously confirmed that my school would receive 43 devices in the event of a local lockdown. I see that this allocation has now been reduced to 9. This is helpful thank you. I couldn't work out how to distribute 43 devices across a three form entry school.
Please can you confirm, is it ok if we raffle the 9 laptops and use the funds raised to pay for a week's vouchers for pupils who are eligible for free school meals? I'm not sure if you are aware but some children suffer from holiday hunger, which means they can't thrive. Oh sorry, I should have said, hunger is when your body needs food.
If there is any money left over from the laptops, I promise to use it towards the costs of additional cleaning. We had been assured of some Government funding to cover cleaning, what with school being open during a pandemic. Actually, old chap, would you mind looking into where that promised money went?
I read this week that a delicious £31.00 meal can be snapped up in a Parliamentary restaurant for just £3.45. What a bargain! I do hope the meals are special cause that £27.55 could buy nine days of vouchers for a child entitled to free school meals.
Please don't rush to reply. As we approach the Christmas season, I can see that you are very busy playing a pantomime villain. That cheeky chappy Marcus Rashford must have been keeping you on your toes too. It seems the MBE didn't shut him up, it's just turned him into Bob Geldof! As you know, we're not really allowed to sing in schools but, if we could, teachers, leaders and school staff everywhere would deliver a rousing rendition of Do they Know it's Christmas? Unfortunately, we'd be singing about children in the first world, not Ethiopia.
Anyway, it's time I checked my emails. It's hard keeping track of all the disappointments and u-turns. Please get back to me about the raffle idea.
Sleep Well

GagaJo Great post (even though I hade to magnify and find reading glasses) it shows one of many reasons why it's so important to give access to these meals.

I wonder how many people who say parents should look after their children actually have any contact with families who need this level of support or is all their information gained from tv shows. I spent years working with families in need, the reasons for their financial issues were myriad but they included learning difficulties, women escaping abuse, mental health issues, etc, some of the abuse issues stretched back generations. This was the reality. These are the children and families you are saying no to.
As for those who abuse the system. So what, honestly so what? There is abuse of every single system, there are postmen who dont do their job properly, people in offices who take a wage whilst doing very little, even nurses who avoid work, so what? because of this minority do we decide there should be no nhs, no postal services, no offices.

Very topical!

Oh dear, me too.

MawB I'm well aware that my post was a change of direction. If all posts had to be strictly relevant to the OP then the forum would be pretty short.
Free school dinners is an emotive subject for a number of reasons. Mine was a gut reaction to school dinners per se.
I don't believe MPs should have subsided meals at all.
Also the problem if hungry school age children is not new. I well remember smuggling biscuits in for the children I saw as a speech therapist in schools in the old days. I thought I was the only one who did it but soon discovered that many of the teachers were surreptitiously bringing in food for them too. Not always the teachers I'd have thought might too!

Brought a tear to my eye.

Yes.
I've already signed it.

Absolutely Elegran !