Does anyone else feel like we’re living like a dystopian novel?

The government's plan sound like glorified school dinners. Do adults really want school dinner

Virtue Signalling Alert. Read no further if easily offended.

At the 2 centres I help out at, most families really enjoy the treat of a home cooked meal. One is run along the lines of a supper club. The tables are set nicely, we take orders and serve.
It is much loved and appreciated by all. Those seeking to up skill ,work in the kitchens, volunteers are able to get a reference and go on to work.
Parents get a much needed break and isolated people are not eating from their laps alone.

In the other setting people are asking for pot noodle and so on because they have no cooker.

I suspect both these examples are a world away from that which some inhabit.

I see nothing bad in this. In my country the university canteens still sell full course meal for few euros and as the portions are not selling to students always, the local community got invited to come in for lunch or dinner and many lonely people or working people do. Instead packing sandwiches I had hot meal with soup , fruit for dessert and even a lemonade for 3 euros or less. Some lonely people could even purchase a beer from the cafe shop next to the canteen which was licensed.

When I first came here and was an aupair, I had a Salvation army canteen next to us and instead eating me aupair mum's food for free, had their food for a change

Franbern I for one have always cooked from scratch and always cooked to a budget, especially when my children were young. it was just so much cheaper and not very time consuming.

I understand that some people may well be excellent cooks, but that only makes the plan of giving them the ingredients to get on with the cooking themselves more cogent. If my experience of school meals and hospital meals is anything to go by, cooking my own meals from donated ingredients would be much more pleasurable.

The ability of many caterers to turn perfectly good food stuffs into inedible food has always amazed me.

Why is it than when ever someone on here mentions the horrific costs of feeding a family these days - there will always be those who quickly come on to deplore the fact that
a) people actually have children they cannot afford to look after properly
b) If only all of those people learned to cook from basics all would be well.

a), it does need pointing out that people's circumstances change - sometimes quite quickly. The baby that was easily afforded five, ten plus years ago before an adult became unemployed /disabled/died - cannot now.

b) I wonder how many of those smug commentators actually make all their meals from basics themselves, and even when they do how many do so for months/years on end, always juggling budgets?

Until you have actually 'walked in the shoes' of those you moan about - I would suggest you stop the moaning.

I can remember British Restuarants. My Mother was seriously ill around the end of the war and my father found it difficult to look after a young child (me), For much of the time I was farmed out to relatives, but at weekends I would be at home with Dad and he would take me to the local British Restaurant - I can remember thinking it was great.

Excellent idea to bring something similar

Mmm, Snoek and Chips, Woolten Pie and hopefully some real bread? Bring it on. On second thoughts, skip the Snoek. I hear it wasn't very nice.

I would like to see the financial planning for these restaurants. I would like to see the evidence that these restaurants will break even.

Surely it would be cheaper still to give those who would benefit a packet of ingredients and the recipe and charge them £1.50 or £2.00. Even with cooking fuel it would be cheaper than having a restaurant and paying staff. It would help people to learn to cook and they could adapt the dishes they made from the ingredientsto suit their needs.

The government's plan sound like glorified school dinners. Do adults really want school dinners.

Will they take photos of all the paupers smiling and waving their spoons like residents in the workhouse?

That is a shocking comparison of the price of food and drinks available to NHS staff with that available to the H of Parliament. That is surely part of a dystopian novel.

MayBee70

Anything that improves the nutrition of people in this country will have a knock on ( and imo cost effective way) of improving overall health thus taking some of the strain away from the NHS.

Yes just like a good early start in a child’s education, good nutrition will pay so many dividends to the country as a whole.

I am all for the state providing a safety net for those who find themselves through no fault of their own temporarily unemployed and/or homeless. It is after all the government of the days primary job is to take care of its citizens and keep them safe.

I would rather the money go to helping them into work and in providing affordable social housing, both of which are long term solutions not short term sticking plasters.

Suppose it makes a change from the endless banging on about small boats.

How nice it is to be all smug about people who need these iniatives to cope.

Sounds good to me, happy for my tax to go towards it.

cc

Sorry, have not read all the posts.
This scheme might work better than food banks if it means children will be able to get a balanced meal every day, including in the school holidays.

I don’t think it’s just for children.

Norah

Perhaps the minimum wage should be raised, at less cost to taxpayers.

Labour raised it not all that long ago.

Anything that improves the nutrition of people in this country will have a knock on ( and imo cost effective way) of improving overall health thus taking some of the strain away from the NHS.

Sorry, meant to say "locally sourced or organic..."

And I really don't see why it needs to be organically sourced or organic so long as it is balanced and healthy.
I'm sure that there are families where no real home cooked food is produced, just the poor quality sausages, burgers and the very cheapest ready meals.

Sorry, have not read all the posts.
This scheme might work better than food banks if it means children will be able to get a balanced meal every day, including in the school holidays.

Norah

Perhaps the minimum wage should be raised, at less cost to taxpayers.

👍. But now of course business owners will cry “fowl” whilst happily being indirectly subsidised through benefits to the low wages by the government for not paying a proper living wage

Casdon

Where does the £3 figure come from? I found an interesting article which reveals the cost of subsidised meals in the House of Commons, but it’s not £3.
nursingnotes.co.uk/news/nhs-staff-pay-around-twice-as-much-as-mps-for-food-at-work/

Telegraph 🙄

Where does the £3 figure come from? I found an interesting article which reveals the cost of subsidised meals in the House of Commons, but it’s not £3.
nursingnotes.co.uk/news/nhs-staff-pay-around-twice-as-much-as-mps-for-food-at-work/

How is a government going to produce a healthy, locally sourced, organic meal for £3? When one looks at school meals and hospital food, I have no faith that it’s an achievable aim.

Cheap food always means someone else pays for it, be it your local farmer, immigrants who harvest it for a pittance or families in developing countries who’ve had their small holdings bought over by big business.

Perhaps the minimum wage should be raised, at less cost to taxpayers.

WW2, if I say that the French do everything better, I'll probably get it in the neck but I do admire them.
They don't eat snacks, they sit at tables and TALK, the children sit up and eat with knives and forks and are taught early to speak politely to adults.
A admirable nation in so many ways.

The Handmaid’s Tale recycled ? I used to think Orwell’s 1984 was bad but now we have surpassed it in many ways.

windmill1

And it hardly seems fair for The Commons and The Lords to have a choice of subsidised restaurants on top of the lavish salaries.

Definitely agree with this comment windmill! They get paid a wage (or an allowance). When we were all at work we had to buy our own lunches didn’t we?

Illustrates the gap though between the haves and the have nots.

At this rate going forward it’s going to be like that book/film “Hunger Games”. Elites in safe gated communities away from the rabble outside their compounds.

Granatlast007

Whitewavemark2

And I absolutely agree about no nannying in such a rich country.

Therefore I propose that the minimum wage be raised to a living wage.
Rents capped
And benefits sufficient to sustain those needing to use them.

I love your posts WW2 and usually agree with them but are you really confident that the money given out through a higher living wage would be spent on food?
There are so many outlets selling cheap, highly unnutritious food and the temptations of vaping, drugs, cheap plastic imports of stuff none of us need and so on.

I get a bit annoyed about people not knowing how to cook, I think they still teach cooking in the National Curriculum?
As to access to cooking fuel and equipment, yes, the housing market needs to be well and truly sorted out.
I do feel I live in a dystopian world, all the above plus people enjoying the heat while the earth burns!!

No of course I am not and neither is anyone else, but that can’t possibly be an argument for not giving people a living wage.

In fact NGOs are beginning to understand that £for£ it is much better spent giving people the cash rather than stuff, as they (the poor) are in a much better position to know what they need and what to spend the money on.

And yes I agree the domestic science education in the U.K. is abysmal.

I also think our culture has something to do with it.

I was watching children of all ages eating in French restaurants and almost everything on the daily menu would not have been deemed suitable for our children. How after do you see “children’s” menus with fish fingers, chicken nuggets and baked beans.
I have also seen a television programme detailing the French children’s s school lunches. My goodness what a world of difference.

The French children were digging into the plat de jour with gusto - piled high with salads, various fish and pudding considered far too sophisticated for our children who generally make do with ice cream etc.

Of course there will now be posters come on to say what fantastic food their grandchildren eat, but we are not talking about those children, but children from a poor snd disadvantaged background.