[user104658]

Originally Posted by Oliver_W

Parents' priority should always be to provide the best possible lives for their kids, and food is always part of that.



But that's not always possible without help when it comes to unprivileged families. Free school meals schemes exist for a reason, and should always be honoured all year round, in the form of food vouchers when the schools aren't on.

Indeed. Prioritise over ALMOST everything else, yes. Sadly the number one priority for pretty much every family has to be housing costs, before anything else, because a full belly isn't much use without a roof over your head.

Things also get complicated fast e.g. plenty of people need their own transport for their job, so again, car and fuel costs then have to be a priority or the situation gets even worse.

And lastly of course the elephant in the room; its not the kids fault if their parent is irresponsible, or an addict, or just plain selfish. "They shouldn't have had kids if..." is such a moot captain hindsight statement. They DID have kids, and what her or not the adults involved "should have had them", the kids themselves don't deserve to suffer for those mistakes.

[Oliver_W]

Originally Posted by Toy Soldier

And lastly of course the elephant in the room; its not the kids fault if their parent is irresponsible, or an addict, or just plain selfish. "They shouldn't have had kids if..." is such a moot captain hindsight statement. They DID have kids, and what her or not the adults involved "should have had them", the kids themselves don't deserve to suffer for those mistakes.

Well exactly - "even" the children of wasters who can't be bothered to work deserve food, as shockingly revolutionary that may seem.

[Ammi]

...there must be a huge amount of unused funding which has been allocated over time for universal free school meals for Key stage 1 children...so many early years children/parents prefer their own lunches to be taken but the funding is there and has been there for several years for every Key stage 1 child...so many parents as well who have reasonable incomes who have always expressed the lack of need for it and who would have preferred lower incomes to benefit from these funding pots../...grants etc...

[Ammi]

...strangely in the many years I’ve worked in schools...I’ve met very few ‘waster’ parents...regardless of what we’re led to believe at times, they’re quite a rare species, I think...

[user104658]

To add to the above; this isn't an income thing it's definitely not just the lower income boys, it's the whole range.

[Oliver_W]

Yeah I think it's a column a/column b thing...

I used to live on a council estate, and some of the people in nearby houses would fit right into an episode of Shameless - there were plenty of "bad backs" and "epilepsies" which meant they couldn't work, and curiously got worse when they had to swing by the job centre ... BUT their big TVs were from Cash Converters, or cost a few pence a week at Brighthouse, or were from the bloke in the pub...

A Channel 4 documentary could make it look like they were scamming their way into the life of riley, when really they were slightly playing the system for a second hand version of it. And really, who cares about minor indescretions like that compared to what goes on in Westminster?

And, I will add, I have no doubt they'd sell their flashy TVs if it meant feeding their kids. But they should never have to.

[arista]

These zones are getting good help, Ammi.


[Mancunians and Liverpudlians unite to
provide free half-term meals to children
after Marcus Rashford campaign

In South Manchester, just around the corner
from where Manchester United star Marcus Rashford grew up,
one cafe bar is responding to the call to offer
free meals to children and their families who desperately need it.
Rustik in Didsbury will be providing free breakfasts
during the October half-term, just one of many
businesses who've rallied together to support
the footballer's campaign to end child poverty.
It comes as a senior Conservative politician said
the party had "misunderstood the mood of
the country" over the extension of free school meals.
Ella Routledge is the manager here and she believes
as a local business they have an important role
to step up and help locals who need it.]

https://news.sky.com/story/mancunian...paign-12114372

[Parmy]

Gonna be some obese issues in a few months if this community spirit keeps up.

[arista]

[Oliver_W]

Originally Posted by arista

Why would they choose such an awful picture of Hamilton, he looks like a seventy year Old who's near death.

[arista]

Originally Posted by Oliver_W

Why would they choose such an awful picture of Hamilton, he looks like a seventy year Old who's near death.

To get the BLM pathetic logo
up high.

[Ammi]

...Black Lives Matter as much as and equivalent to White Lives...pathetic...?...

[arista]

Originally Posted by Ammi

...Black Lives Matter as much as and equivalent to White Lives...pathetic...?...

Sure
but the USA Political Group BLM
are Fascists

[arista]

[Ammi]

...Marcus making Britain great again.....

[joeysteele]

Originally Posted by Ammi

...Marcus making Britain great again.....

Indeed.

I think this policy of not carrying on what they already have in place, during a few weeks holidays, is just another sick low from this government.

There'll be those who sadly support their heartlessness too.
Unbelievable

[Kizzy]

Why does the government not understand the public?...
Why do they keep getting us so wrong?,they won't back fsms? They won't go for a lock down?

I'm often accused of being anti British but luckily unlike these lot I'm not anti Britons!

[Ammi]

...those who have nothing give everything...those who have everything give nothing...?...

[joeysteele]

The annoying thing is, since now it's taken backbench Con MPs to start making decisive noises following their constituency postbags etc:
That this PM and his hard-line cabinet appear to be having to think again.

When the thinking should have been done in the first place and put this in place from the outset..in fact it should have been this PM and his government IF he had an ounce of decency who should have just automatically done this as to meals for children.

However what will be annoying, will be the lauding of this PM and his rotten hard-line cabinet for as it may be said, 'listening and changing their minds'.

When in fact they will, IF they do it, have been shamed into it and dragged kicking and screaming to do it.

It will be the right thing to do certainly, however having resisted doing anything and holding to his hard line since the vote, that speaks volumes about the cruelty of this PMs real thinking.

Disgraceful has been the government's response since this vote.

They were wrong to not suggest this themselves, wrong to vote it down and wrong to just ignore the outcry until some backbenchers of their own Party, actually developed a bit of backbone and started to speak out.

[Kazanne]

Haven't the government already raised Universal credit to cover this ? plus given the funds to local governments for it, No kids need to be hungry, use your money you are given for the important things (like food for the kids) not on things you dont need.

[smudgie]

Originally Posted by Kazanne

Haven't the government already raised Universal credit to cover this ? plus given the funds to local governments for it, No kids need to be hungry, use your money you are given for the important things (like food for the kids) not on things you dont need.

Yes.
£63 million extra to councils to cover emergency funding needed.
I think the universal credit is to cover the extra time off people are having to do, help out with extra snacks etc.
To be honest it would have been easier to pay the extra direct for free school lunches and save all this hassle.

[Kazanne]

Originally Posted by smudgie

Yes.
£63 million extra to councils to cover emergency funding needed.
I think the universal credit is to cover the extra time off people are having to do, help out with extra snacks etc.
To be honest it would have been easier to pay the extra direct for free school lunches and save all this hassle.

So they have put in place help ,so basically its not being distributed right by the councils etc ? Thanks smudgie ,so why are the government getting blamed for not helping when they clearly have ?

[Kizzy]

Originally Posted by Kazanne

So they have put in place help ,so basically its not being distributed right by the councils etc ? Thanks smudgie ,so why are the government getting blamed for not helping when they clearly have ?

Nope... that was in June, there have been 6 weeks of school holidays since then.

1.3m kids were eligible for a fsm in June at a cost of £15pw each. How much of that 63m is left now?

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/6...her-essentials

[joeysteele]

Originally Posted by Kizzy

Nope... that was in June, there have been 6 weeks of school holidays since then.

1.3m kids were eligible for a fsm in June at a cost of £15pw each. How much of that 63m is left now?

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/6...her-essentials

Spot on but you're likely wasting your time saying so.
Good luck to you though.

[joeysteele]

Originally Posted by smudgie

Yes.
£63 million extra to councils to cover emergency funding needed.
I think the universal credit is to cover the extra time off people are having to do, help out with extra snacks etc.
To be honest it would have been easier to pay the extra direct for free school lunches and save all this hassle.

It was given in June to cover help cover emergency and school meals in term time.
Not school holiday periods.

Honestly why they're making such an issue of this is pointless.
I agree.

They look shocking.

Just cover the extra weeks too of holidays.
If it's needed in term time, I don't see how there's any rhyme or reason for withholding it in holiday periods.
Which is only a matter of weeks in reality.