‘#FreeSchoolMeals bag for 10 days: 2 days jacket potato with beans, 8 single cheese sandwiches, 2 days carrots, 3 days apples, 2 days soreen, 3 days frubes. Spare pasta and tomato. Will need mayo for pasta salad. Issued instead of £30 vouchers. I could do more with £30 to be honest.’
This was the tweet that caused a storm last night, after one parent – who goes by the Twitter name ‘Roadside mum’ – shared a picture of what she had been sent for her kids school meals. The food box was intended to replace free school meal vouchers worth £30 but adds up to no more than £5.22 in a local Asda. ‘The private company who have the Free School Meal contract made a good profit here,’ the mum added.
Who was that company? Well, according to their reply, Chartwells. ‘Thank you for bringing this to our attention, this does not reflect the specification of one of our hampers,’ the company replied on Twitter. ‘Please can you DM us the details of the school that your child attends and we will investigate immediately.’
Chartwells free school meals: What does tory donor Paul Walsh have to do with all of this?
Chartwells is owned by Compass Group, whose chairman – up until 1st December 2020 – was Paul Walsh, a major Tory donor and one of 103 business leaders who wrote to The Telegraph in 2015 praising the Conservatives and claiming a Labour government ‘would threaten jobs and deter investment’. Knowing this, the government appointing one of the Free School Meals contracts to Chartwells has raised ethics questions.
Currently, 'Chartwells free school meals', 'free school meals contract' and 'compass group' are all trending terms on Google as people search in droves for more information about how this happened.
Since 'Roadside Mum' shared her parcel, hundreds of other families have come forward with their own through food poverty activists Marcus Rashford and Jack Monroe. Scrolling through them all, the lack of respect and dignity for the most vulnerable in our society is glaring, the food boxes are all just a fraction of what a family could purchase with the vouchers they should’ve received.
Why were food parcels offered instead of food vouchers?
According to Monroe, food boxes were offered as an alternative to vouchers after ‘mouthpieces on Twitter with their own austerity agendas claimed there was widespread misuse with no evidence.’ Last year, some were claiming that parents were abusing the vouchers to buy whatever they wanted – but in fact the vouchers were blocked from being spent on age-restricted products like alcohol, cigarettes or lottery tickets.
With the option to provide food parcels instead, many schools moved away from vouchers and trusted the government-approved companies - like Chartwell - catering for vulnerable families and chose to send parcels from various organisations. Now though, with so many people receiving these despicable offers – that quite clearly do not meet the standards issued by the Department for Education – some are reverting back to vouchers.
It will still be a slap in the face for many parents who have already received the boxes though, some of whom will be forced to go hungry thanks to the offers. ‘Then imagine we expect the children to engage in learning from home,’ Rashford tweeted, sharing a picture of one of the food boxes. ‘Not to mention the parents who, at times, have to teach them who probably haven’t eaten at all so their children can.’
The Department for Education have told Rashford they’re investigating the issue, tweeting ‘We have clear guidelines and standards for food parcels, which we expect to be followed. Parcels should be nutritious and contain a varied range of food.’
Whatever they conclude though, what’s glaringly obvious about this is that the companies providing these food parcels – chosen specifically by the government – have absolutely zero respect or empathy for the millions of families that need free school meals right now. And if you look at the response to instances like this, you can see how they get away with that.
‘There seems to be a prevalent train of thought that if you’re in poverty you should be “grateful”’ for anything you get,’ explains Monroe. ‘I have spent the last seven years giving talks to various organisations and conferences and political parties urging them to put DIGNITY AND ACTIVE LISTENING at the core of all of their work.
‘Nothing about us without us,’ she continued. ‘Ask people what their needs are, respond accordingly. Don’t be a Marie Antoinette or worse, a sneering Scrooge. People in difficult situations are PEOPLE, no less ‘deserving’ of a good meal than anyone else.’
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