£15 a week for lunch doesn’t seem like a lot does it? I mean I could easily pop into a waitrose or M & S and pick up a meal deal for one everyday when I used to work in local gov comms and probably spend that per day and that’s not even adding the coffees I would buy! And for a lot of people within the UK right now, that’s totally normal to not even blink at that cost per week.
Shop school lunches for under £15 per week
However, the pandemic has changed a lot for families and even more so for those that are considered to be on lower-income families, that don’t have the cash reserves to be able to afford the increased living costs of extra heating, water and electricity of their lives now being permanently at home.
These people could also be dealing with reduced pay due to furlough and/or loss of employment due to childcare costs.
The current lockdown is only making this matter worse and families that may have been just making ends meet pay cheque to pay cheque are ending up in debt and choosing between eating or paying the bills.
So it comes as no surprise when the government totally did a 180 on their misjudged plans to pause free school meals, a lot of families were completely overjoyed at the news of extra help. I will also premise that in 2021 now the fact that we in the UK should even have such poverty is unfathomable but that’s a whole other blog article for another day!
However, its when this help from being a £15 voucher turned into the physical goods that parents receiving these food parcels started to question just where the money, meant for their children, was really going?
Even to just qualify for free school meals, annual household income must fall below £7,400, pre-benefits and having just one worker on a minimum wage per household pushes a family over that limit. So we’re talking about the most vulnerable within our society here!
We did our own shop to see just how far £15 goes
It’s really not rocket science to create good quality food, getting in all your portions of veg, fruit and protein a day for £15 a week per child. I did my own costings for my children’s lunches and I used the shop Adsa as an example so I could reference the products in lockdown, but usually, we are a Lidi family so I think this would probably be even cheaper.
Leaving me to splurge on items from the bakery like pain au chocolat which they love! And they are probably a better option to the Barny Bears but its hard times and small treats are essential according to my kids!
Increasing funds or providing the vouchers would give back autonomy to parents. Giving them the say and options to provide better quality options and choice when it comes to the health and nutrition of their children.
schools only recevice a portion of the £15 a week budget to pay for a fruit snack, main and pudding.
We spoke to serval schools on this subject and they all said basically the same thing. When the funding comes in they don’t actually received the full £15 per child per week, or rather 5 days. That would be a costing of £3 per meal so fruit snack, main and pudding. It’s actually a lot less at approx. £1.20 per meal so totalling £6 pounds per child for the school week.
And that’s why families aren’t getting the same as before with the £15 food vouchers. They are getting something more inline with the school funding and this is where the huge decline or shortfalls are occurring. Leaving many families not able to make substantial meals for their children or knowing if the quality of the unmarked products.
Chatwells has put out a public statement on the matter and the Department of Education has used their social media to put out key information to parents looking to apply to the scheme and also report parcels that fall below the expected quality line.
Whatever your stance on this at the end of the day, money that’s meant for vulnerable children is going elsewhere and its those children that are missing out at a time they are also having their lives turned upside down.
Would it be so hard to work with supermarket suppliers to create food boxes that people can order and get delivered for school meals to put the health, wellbeing and nutrition of these children first?
What would the mechanics of this be because I can’t see the current system working or being a benefit right now?
As always we are interested in what our audience has to say so let us know your thoughts over on Facebook or within the community.
“Chartwells has already apologised for the quantity of food provided having “fallen short in this instance”. Children and families minister Vicky Ford has said the firm’s boss, Charlie Brown, has promised the firm has “taken immediate action to stop further deliveries of poor-quality parcels” and “will ensure schools affected are compensated”. It is also to provide additional food in line with topped-up Government funding, including breakfasts.”
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