Marcus Rashford letter

lizzypopbottle just come on for a browse and saw your post. As someone who volunteered at a foodbank ( it's been all change since covid, no drop ins, they're operating a delivery service) can I just say I doubt there's a foodbank in the country needs baked beans. My one worked out they could keep a family in beans at the rate of one tin a day for the next 5 years without a hiccup! Tinned meat pies, tins of minced beef etc are much more needed. There's usually a local App that will tell you what's most needed in your local area, and cash donations are always welcome.

I forgot to say I haven't had a reply, I must chase that up.

The Welsh Government announced back in April that they would continue the free school meals throughout the summer for eligible children.
They are funding it to the equivalent of £19.50 per child per week enough to cover a breakfast and a main meal, each LA making their own arrangements.

lizziepopbottle I have asked whether the supermarket could add an option at the time of payment for online home deliveries to add extra for food banks.
Normally I would pick up extra items and put them in the cage but with home deliveries it's not possible. I would add items in the school holidays which were easy for a child to prepare because many are alone.

Fortunately in my council area in Scotland children on free school meals get fed 365 days a year every year (366 this year) AllScottish kids who qualify for free meal scheme were going to continue to be fed this summer thankfully. I used to run holiday playschemes and we always had food because some kids have always gone hungry in holidays

Suziewoozie I know, but the lies need to be believable, he's just making a fool of himself.

lemongrove your summer dinners sound horrendous, I’m not surprised you quit to spend time in the park. At Junior School everyone mixed together paid for or free.

At Secondary the did the same - gave a white ticket for paid and purple for free. Had to go to the office every day to get the ticket. Highly embarrassing.

I used to work for the neighbours, tidying gardens, cleaning their brass and got paid 50p a time. (1978) If I did 5 jobs over the weekend I earnt £2.50 which I used for lunches for the week. Then realised you could sell your free meal ticket for half price so had an extra 25p most days.

I spent that on a ‘punch board’ thing in the sweet shop. You had a silver pin thing and pushed a silver dot, where a paper appeared from the back of the board. If it matched a number on the front you won whatever the prize was.

I remember going there one day with my 25p (5p a go) and winning a swing bin and 400 cigarettes which I proudly presented to my Mum when I got home. (There wasn’t anything in the shops about under age smoking back then, and Mum was highly delighted with her new bin. The cigarettes were used for birthday and Christmas presents) ?

We planned our first child after 7 years of marriage and when I was 37. We both had good jobs and I still ended up as a single parent and my children received free school meals at one stage.

There are plenty of women on here who've spent most of their lives relying on a man to keep them. Strangely enough, they're often the most vocal about single mother "scroungers".

Sh*t really does happen!

PS. I know there are plenty of other women who have worked hard.

Don't be silly mcem! It has to be your own home!

Curly Johnson ( please not Boris) is a pathological liar in exactly the same league as Trump.

Prompted by the announcement that DFID is to be merged with the Foreign Office I wonder how many here might be thinking this would be a good way to cut back on overseas aid.
Many a time I have read on GN that 'charity begins at home'!
Are they the same posters who begrudge poor children in large families the support they need over the summer holidays?
Or for some reason don't they count as being 'at home'?

Whatever the reason families end up in poverty, why would anyone think the children should suffer?

Oh why, oh why did Boris say he knew nothing about the issue until today? He needs to get a better PR company, he's losing credibility on a daily basis.

There has always been free school meals during holidays in my part of Scotland when I was at primary school I sed to walk with my friend every day to get her lunch.This was a state catholic shool and on Holidays of obligation there were packed lunches handed out as the dinnerladies/cooks had that holiday too.
Now its vouchers for a cheap shop or straight into a bank account in areas where there isn't a Farmfoods or Iceland theres also a system like the children have with their credit card that puts the money into a card in the parents name so it can be spent in a selection of local shops

When daddies were given the choice to opt out?

^How many of us on here planned our families years ago according to our finances?
I would guess most^

What then has changed over the past few decades to explain this shift in a sense of personal responsibility?

I would hazard a guess here.
There’s no ‘shame’ these days in being a single mum.
Not like the early 70’s.
That’s progress in itself and probably a ‘good thing’ of itself.

But with choice comes responsibility surely?

When did the ‘state’ become ‘the daddy’?

I see Johnson lied about not knowing about the issue until today.

Seems Boris agrees with Rashford in the end.
He listens.
He didn’t say ‘no’.
?

An amazing young man. His Mum should be very proud of what he has achieved.

No, it didn't go out to tender Riverwalk. I've forgotten the name of the company, but it had never had any experience in delivering vouchers, which is why there were initially so many delays. There are limits on where they can be spent, so people were saying there weren't any of those particular supermarkets where they lived and they couldn't spend the voucher sin discount shops.

Riverwalk There are about a million people in that situation. Many of them have children and have never claimed any kind of benefit before. There are massive holes in the support the government is giving people. This is a completely new experience for them. They most certainly aren't using the system - and I doubt if many others are either. Sh*t can happen to anybody!

Another interesting fact from the mother on Radio 4 - the voucher scheme is operated by a company.

I wonder how much their fee is, and did the contract go to tender?

Just heard a mother on Radio 4 talking to Evan Davies - she was articulate and able to explain well that she has totally lost her job, not furloughed, never relied on such relief before but was now in need.

She was grateful to Rashford for getting it sorted, having already written to Gavin Williamson, the PM, and her MP, to no avail.

JenniferE please provide where you obtained the information that millions of children are born to parents who were just using the system. Not all children are planned, my certainly weren't, due to a failure of the pill while on antibiotics. Oh to be so perfect.

I really don't think this U-turn is as a result of listening - they were embarrassed into it.

In the press briefing just now, the PM was asked how come it took a 22 year old footballer to change your mind - of course he just waffled about how he congratulated Marcus Rashford and that we must protect the kids in need.

He really has exposed his true nature, yet again.

suziewoozie absolutely! I find it hard to believe that even this government could be so crass that it couldn’t see what was the right thing to do. Surely even if they were blind their PR people would have told them they were shooting themselves in the foot! The cost is just a drop in the ocean compared the the sail lions already sloshing about.