Free School Meals and Overdraft
Other
With the cost of Food Supplies, Catering Companies including those in Schools have had to raise the cost of the meals.
There has only been a pitiful 5p added to the Free School Meal Allowance making it £2.35.
In High Schools they can use their allowance However they choose, but due to the amount given they can either opt for the meal deal which is a main and dessert or go for a snack item (which most do)
I personally think that the choice should be removed and only the Main Meal Deal given as this quite often is the only meal they will get in the day, even more so now in the current climate. To make things worse they can spend the lunch money at break too! Then at lunch if they are still hungry my school gives them an overdraft which many Parents are unaware of! Until the school chases to clear the debt.
My children take extra snacks with them to get through the day, I feel Sorry for anyone child that relies on what they are given for a school lunch.
Howmuch That’s great, Children are always hungry as they are growing. I actually am a Chef Manager at a School so I see first hand what goes on. As I am actually trained I can manage to make everything from scratch which enables me to keep cost as low as possible. I make the main as appealing and tasty as possible, with good feedback, however Out of 160 Free School Meals still only 60 go for it.
jillylovesyou As you say childrens do Have a good appetite, maybe they unfamiliar the meals you are offering or have spent the money at break time because they are hungry. At my childrens school all the popular burgers, pizza and chips go first. It is hard enough to cook something that all my children will want to eat at home, I imagine it makes it hard to offer vegan, dairy free, nut free and gluten free options without cooking the same things over and over again.
Howmuch I do have quite a varied menu but yes the extra legislation does make things so much more time consuming especially the paperwork. As you say it tends to be trendy to have grab n go items, saying that that tends to be throughout the nation including adults. If they spend the money at break they can dip into their overdraft, something I think should be an opt in with the parents as it would prevent a shock when the school sends them a bill that they are not expecting!
jillylovesyou I imagine that is a popular day. It would be good if all children received a free school lunch and snack at break. The system that allows a child to spend money that the parent does not want to spend or does not have, will cause some real problems for children at home.
Secondary school's prices are RIDICULOUS! They should sell the food at a reasonable price. However they rip off the students because they know that the children can't go out to the shops and buy themselves food.
Justshopping I am afraid you need to blame privatisation. I totally agree that they should never have sold out and kept it run by local councils.
jillylovesyou everything's going up. What do you not buy and what do you buy? The richer are getting richer and the poorer are getting poorer
Justshopping it’s not good at the moment. We always used to be a country that wouldn’t go cold and hungry!
jillylovesyou im sorry to say this but I think its going to get worse. I dont even have my own house yet, living with parents and the wages im on now would be impossible to buy a house the prices are ridiculous
We should stop subsidising food in the houses of Parliament, it cost 17 million over 3 year from 2018-2021. I'm sure it would be much better spent feeding hungry kids who's parents are struggling.
telmel it's amazing how much there willing to cut until it comes to their wages, second jobs, second homes, expenses and subsidiaries. The tax payer could save a fortune!
Midnightflower I totally agree with that, if they were to give them the same menu as they serve the children, it would only cost about 20% of that amount.
pato We've done 12 years of austerity, they've destroyed every public service going and now they've crashed our economy to give tax breaks to the rich. Yet children can starve and working people are at food banks! It's beyond a joke.
Midnightflower it hurts me when I see the children arriving hungry, at least we do give them a free breakfast
Midnightflower And to add insult to injury, it looks like they're about to put us through more austerity, I think that they're forgetting that a large proportion of the food in these food banks come from ordinary everyday people like you and I, but the way things are going these days, foodbanks might not be as well stocked very soon.
jillylovesyou my sons school has free bagels every morning and often has cereal ect for parents to take if they wish which is amazing but it shouldn't be that way. Its even worse for parents on universal credit, you have to earn less than £8,000 to be entitled to free school meals compared to £16,000 on the old system.
jillylovesyou The whole system is a joke and as you quite rightly mentioned earlier, privatisation is to blame for a lot of these issues. as long as the shareholders get their profits the rest of us can curl up and die as far as they're concerned.
pato I never thought someone could make Boris look good again, but they've done it. None of them have a clue and the comments about working people being lazy and needing to work harder disgust me.
Midnightflower Every word that comes out of their mouths disgust me, none of them have ever done a days work in their lives, it would be very interesting to find out how anyone is going to be able to work harder as all I can ever remember under these Tory governments have been job cuts and austerity, most people can't actually afford to wipe their earses these day.
pato what I find incredible, is after watching Boris be bought down by lieing and failing to spin the truth. They're still doing it. They really do think the public are idiots that will believe whatever they're told. Our entire political system needs overhauling to stop this ridiculous behaviour before we have no country left. They may have needed a new leader but the public never voted in the extreme right, that's been done by the Conservative party. What happened to leveling up? It looks more like we're heading towards starving whilst bankers make there billions.
Midnightflower Yes there's definitely worrying times ahead unless there is a complete revamp as there's been one lunatic after the other each becoming worse than the one before and now look at the state of the asylum, we have been treated like idiots for far too long now, we need a new Government system were they all work with each other for the true genuine good of the people, not one that fleeces us to line their own pockets.
Midnightflower the Tory’s don’t care as the are going down so milking it whilst they can! Idiots!
jillylovesyou I really hope this is the end of them, but we also need serious political reform to stop it happening again. It will takes decades to undo the damage they have done.
I agree with you only a meal should be served and abolish the snacks, not that I know what snacks are offered.
What on earth do these parents do with their child allowance? Do they all buy takeaway to be delivered to their door? or do they cook from scratch? It's about time "these sort of parents" pull their weight and supply their children with a cooked/or uncooked lunch daily.
I can't believe that schools can give a child an overdraft without the consent of the parents - who would be the ones who have to repay it. If I still had children at school I would contest this as surely you have to agree to a 'loan' before it can be enforced.
tumblespots that is exactly what I think. I would also refuse to pay it as surely you would have to sign as it’s technically a credit agreement
Our local council recently wrote off the school meals debt. Not sure how much it was but it was into the tens of thousands.
My daughter didn't get the days money on her account until after break. The overdraft could be worrying if done badly
Imnotcheap that is down to each individual school to how they set up the times of day. I agree it should be available at the mid part of the day only.
We should cut down on it. Parents should be responsible to make arrangements for their children. Bring the values of raising children back in the culture. Feel responsible and proud of being parents. This also inculcate sense of belonging and respect we earn between Relations’s abs family values.
shazzi The whole idea of free school meals for children is because some parents simply don’t have the funds to pay for a lunch and children need to eat so they can fulfil their education to the best of their abilities. Everybody can fall on hard times at some time
Join for free to get genuine deals, money saving advice and help from our friendly community
Chief Bargain Hunter
