[Food] Child food hampers

[WATFORD zero]

Who’s it run by now?


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I've no idea, the article says that he stepped down last month. Maybe try Google

The article also says that the company has been awarded £350m in school meal catering contracts since he has been in charge and is the largest provider of school meals in the UK, so maybe he's done what he was bought in for.

 

[METALMICKY]

There is a continuing trend of profitable contracts being awarded by central governemt to dubious companies for services to the nation, funded by the state/tax payer. These contracts are not generally open to tender, or subject to scrutiny, and many of the companies have been set up specifically to take advantagfe of these facts, aided and abetted by members of the house. This constitutes a disgusting conflicy of interest and really should have stopped years ago. The tories are not the only ones but it would appear have really made the practice their own and what can only be described as the legal crime of the century.

The fact that in this instance dependant children from deprived backgrounds weill suffer as a consequence just further highlights how despicable, greedy, selfish, and uncaring our governemnent is. Shame on them. I can only pity the poor souls daft enough to have been hood winked by their election lies and fooled into voting from them.

I had dinner tickets for a few years aged 7-9, my Dad left, my mum was at home unable to work with 2 young boys to feed, I wouldn't have starved, but I got a decent lunch at Buckingham middle school, and it really made a difference. I remember there not being much in the cupboards at home and the struggle for a few years, council flat, B&B briefly. Mum never deprived us in any way, more likely deprived herself. I'll be forever grateful for that little bit of state help which saw us through a bad patch. to see half or more of that state aid going in a snakes pocket makes me extremely angry and sad, and further highlights what a horrible little country we've become.

Now if only the original thread starter and the second poster read the circumstances of why you had free meals. It's called life! It's makes my piss boil that they assume that any form of help MUST be some sort of scroungers life style choice. The economic impact will linger long and a lot people may find themselves having to claim some sort of benefit.

 

[Hastings gull]

I worked in the Benefits industry for many years and quite a few were dealing with emergency payments to families. In the early years cash was handed out but it soon became a very badly managed and abused system. A lot of LA's started handing out food bank vouchers instead. A lot tried handing out supermarket vouchers and unfortunately a small minority spoilt it for the rest. Selling a £20 voucher for £10 cash was not uncommon. They tried restricting what you could use the vouchers for but some supermarkets wouldn't go along with that. Sainsbury's did, vouchers couldn't be used for lottery/fags/alcohol but complaints soon came in of customers creating problems in the supermarkets when they were denied buying what they wanted, so that got stopped as well.

As I say a small minority trying to abuse the system has meant that the Govt just don't trust parents to do the right thing and hence you have food parcels.

Who would ever have thought it! In 35 years of teaching, not once did I hear any child or parent say that they went hungry at holiday time. I just watched a mum complain that it was not enough for the family, yet it is intended for the children, at which poiint my wife said -looking at her, that she can afford to have her nails done!
This is not to deny that some families genuinely need help -I am sure that they do, and welcome any assistance given to make childrens' lives better, but sadly, all too often, what starts as a well-intentioned measure, soon becomes abused.

 

[GT49er]

A lot of the hoo-haa has come from the below image shared by "RoadsideMum" on Twitter, where she said it was 10 days of food for her 2 children and replaced £30 of food vouchers she would otherwise have received. There was then massed outrage on the basis that a) this is not enough food for the children, and b) it didn't represent £30 of value compared to going to a supermarket (she priced it up at Aldi at £5.22)

The provider, Chartwells, has since clarified that this is actually 5 lunches for 1 child and they billed the government £10.50, which includes the costs of distribution.

I think that without the "fake news" from Twitter this wouldn't have been half as much of a story.

So, the real question is, which version of the truth is the fake news?

 

[zefarelly]

You would have thought that they had quality control mechanism in place to ensure that this didn’t happen. You’d have thought that government department responsible would also have checked.


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Yes, like a properly defined and quality assured Customer RFQ, due diligance, tender approval checks, that kind of thing. I'm sure Boris checked all that personally before reiteterating the importance and integrity with the utmost sincerity to a footballer. likely as not its just a photocopy of a menu from the bullingdon club anyway.

 

[zefarelly]

Who would ever have thought it! In 35 years of teaching, not once did I hear any child or parent say that they went hungry at holiday time. I just watched a mum complain that it was not enough for the family, yet it is intended for the children, at which poiint my wife said -looking at her, that she can afford to have her nails done!
This is not to deny that some families genuinely need help -I am sure that they do, and welcome any assistance given to make childrens' lives better, but sadly, all too often, what starts as a well-intentioned measure, soon becomes abused.

Maybe we need a progamme of mass sterilsation and childrens workhouses, that'll learn em!

 

[beorhthelm]

Don't panic, the £30/£10.50 mix up is explained in this article

right, £30 given for Christmas, so some have expectation that amount continues.

 

[GT49er]

I worked in the Benefits industry for many years and quite a few were dealing with emergency payments to families. In the early years cash was handed out but it soon became a very badly managed and abused system. A lot of LA's started handing out food bank vouchers instead. A lot tried handing out supermarket vouchers and unfortunately a small minority spoilt it for the rest. Selling a £20 voucher for £10 cash was not uncommon. They tried restricting what you could use the vouchers for but some supermarkets wouldn't go along with that. Sainsbury's did, vouchers couldn't be used for lottery/fags/alcohol but complaints soon came in of customers creating problems in the supermarkets when they were denied buying what they wanted, so that got stopped as well.

Having also spent most of my working life in the benefits sector, I can personally endorse every word of the above - that is exactly what happened.

 

[Joey Jo Jo Jr. Shabadoo]

I can vouch that food hampers do look like the one posted on Twitter as I got 2 of the Chartwells parcels (although we'd already been made aware the hampers being delivered were for a week) as I am a non working single Dad with 3 kids at home (the youngest goes to a different school and they are delivering vouchers tomorrow).

Each of the food hampers consisted of
1 x loaf of bread
10 x slices of cheese (very salty)
3 x apples (mostly bruised)
3 x satsumas
3 x squeezy yogurts
3 x single malt loaf bars
2 x med sized baked potatoes
200g pasta (in open bags rather than sealed)
2 x tomatoes
2 x carrots (one was part rotten)
1 x tin of beans

In school the children get a cooked lunch each day with a variety of options, sometimes including a curry, fish and chips on a Friday, roast dinner on a Wednesday. Now obviously no-one is expecting the boxes to contain anything like that but in comparison the food hampers are very poor. The bread had been frozen and was out of date (it's still fresh but there is a rush to get it used before it goes off).

The head at the school my kids go to had already written to parents apologising for the poor state of the hampers and saying they'd already rejected Chartwells "improved" hamper offer and were looking at alternatives, this was before the announcement of the return to the voucher scheme that has been previously used.

 

[Chicken Run]

MAybe we need a progamme of mass steririlsation and childrens workhouses, that'll learn em!

Reversible sterilisation could work, then at say 25 the potential couple would go down the Town Hall and be means tested to see if they can afford children independently from state funding, the successful couple would then be granted a licence to produce[emoji23]


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[zefarelly]

Having also spent most of my working life in the benefits sector, I can personally endorse every word of the above - that is exactly what happened.

Which to me suggests the benefit system is wrong more than anything else.

Once or twice a year I go past the council estate flats where we had to live for 6 months to remind myself why I work hard and have been lucky in many respects . . . there were people taking the piss then and more now I'm sure, a lot of them have better cars than me.

If the benefit system was better planned/managed from up top it would get more directly/accurately targeted?

 

[schmunk]

The bread had been frozen and was out of date (it's still fresh but there is a rush to get it used before it goes off).

Having read through some of the stuff on Twitter yesterday, somebody posted an image of the packing box that these loaves come in. This clarified that these are designed to be stored frozen for up to a year and then defrosted in transit to the recipient.

Somewhat confusingly, the Best Before / Use By date shown on the loaf label is the overall frozen date (the RoadsideMum load posted shows November 2021), but that once defrosted there is a Use By of 5 days, like any other bread.

 

[keaton]

children getting free school meals (because of circumstances) are entitled to free lunches while schools are off. its assumed that often those circumstance mean the school meal is their only substantial meal.

some people have thought whats provided isnt sufficient, on the misunderstanding they cost £30 and cover two weeks. it turns out they cost £10.50 and cover a week. some are still unsubstantial by that measure too (some look fair enough), though there's also some bogus claims on social media to stir it up a good political mess.

meanwhile no really gets into the issue why are we simply not giving vouchers to cover this, apparently thats decided by schools/local authorities.

Because the government's recommendation is that school's provide lunch parcels.

I would assume this is because any voucher scheme comes with a heap of technology issues but also, the school's will already receive funding and have arrangements in place with meal providers. If they don't use them they will either waste money already spent or lead to financial pressures on the catering company and or their staff

 

[zefarelly]

I can vouch that food hampers do look like the one posted on Twitter as I got 2 of the Chartwells parcels (although we'd already been made aware the hampers being delivered were for a week) as I am a non working single Dad with 3 kids at home (the youngest goes to a different school and they are delivering vouchers tomorrow).

Each of the food hampers consisted of
1 x loaf of bread
10 x slices of cheese (very salty)
3 x apples (mostly bruised)
3 x satsumas
3 x squeezy yogurts
3 x single malt loaf bars
2 x med sized baked potatoes
200g pasta (in open bags rather than sealed)
2 x tomatoes
2 x carrots (one was part rotten)
1 x tin of beans

In school the children get a cooked lunch each day with a variety of options, sometimes including a curry, fish and chips on a Friday, roast dinner on a Wednesday. Now obviously no-one is expecting the boxes to contain anything like that but in comparison the food hampers are very poor. The bread had been frozen and was out of date (it's still fresh but there is a rush to get it used before it goes off).

The head at the school my kids go to had already written to parents apologising for the poor state of the hampers and saying they'd already rejected Chartwells "improved" hamper offer and were looking at alternatives, this was before the announcement of the return to the voucher scheme that has been previously used.

can't give a thumbs up to that. but good to have a horses mouth post to clarify the shitshow.

 

[Albion in the north]

4 years ago I set up a service for Uni students, where they, or usually their parents, could order a £25 box of food delivered to their accommodation every week with enough food in it to last a week. All fresh items sourced from their local market and their was a QR code on the box which they clicked on which took them to a video of something easy to make with the contents.Think we could have done a lot better job than this lot. In my view it ticked every box. Support local , healthy eating and learn how to cook.

 

[zefarelly]

If you were to phone any one of millions of sensible mums or dads. Ok, just mums . . .. or Jamie Oliver, the vast majority would offer a balanced affordable ingredient menu for most parents or even kids, to be able to cook/make their own lunch, for free.

Sod vouchers.

just send the list to a range of supermarkets with a list of recipeients, and a polite ORDER to deliver them.

get saids supermarkets to invoice @gov.uk. 120 day payments ( same as the supermarkets shaft their suppliers)

job done.

 

[zefarelly]

4 years ago I set up a service for Uni students, where they, or usually their parents, could order a £25 box of food delivered to their accommodation every week with enough food in it to last a week. All fresh items sourced from their local market and their was a QR code on the box which they clicked on which took them to a video of something easy to make with the contents.Think we could have done a lot better job than this lot. In my view it ticked every box. Support local , healthy eating and learn how to cook.
View attachment 132431

Is it safe to assume the findus crispy pancakes are under the cauliflower ?

asking for a student.

 

[Thunder Bolt]

I am with you on this. Wife works with a woman at RSCH whose husband also works but still get free school meals. When my children were young it was those most in need and parents not working. I suppose Im just a dinosaur who believes is you want children you ensure you can support them, Like you I await flaming.

Both parents can be working but still have to claim benefits. Rents are exorbitant and can be up to 50% of wages coming in.
People are being laid off or furloughed and have a minimum furlough wage coming in.

 

[schmunk]

4 years ago I set up a service for Uni students, where they, or usually their parents, could order a £25 box of food delivered to their accommodation every week with enough food in it to last a week. All fresh items sourced from their local market and their was a QR code on the box which they clicked on which took them to a video of something easy to make with the contents.Think we could have done a lot better job than this lot. In my view it ticked every box. Support local , healthy eating and learn how to cook.
View attachment 132431

Looks great.

Please could you deliver 1.4 Million of those next week, to 20,000 different sites? We'll pay you £14 per week*. I'll send you the list.



*Government have increased this from £10.50 per week from next week onwards.

 

[hans kraay fan club]

I am with you on this. Wife works with a woman at RSCH whose husband also works but still get free school meals. When my children were young it was those most in need and parents not working. I suppose Im just a dinosaur who believes is you want children you ensure you can support them, Like you I await flaming.

Even if we put aside the ethics of your suggestion of people effectively being means-tested for the right to have a family, you are completely ignoring the possibility of changed circumstances.

What happens to children, born to tiberious-approved folk, who absolutely COULD afford to support them, but subsequently lose their jobs? Or get ill? Or have to retire through ill-health?

I've no idea if you are a dinosaur, and nobody has 'flamed' you, but your views are pretty ignorant.