Parents blast 'woefully inadequate' food parcels for children learning at home
- par Thibaud Popelin
- dans Monde
- — Jan 13, 2021
Photos showing food packages being sent to school children in the United Kingdom who are now learning remotely have sparked outrage online, with many calling the parcels "shameful", "cruel", and "disgraceful".
The families receiving the parcels would normally qualify for free school lunches.
Rashford has led a campaign over the past year for free school meals to be given to vulnerable children during the coronavirus pandemic. Many on Twitter have also raised concerns.
Parents have been left furious this week after receiving food parcels for their children in lieu of £30 meal vouchers, with the minimal amount of food per package being valued at no more than £5.
The parcel has been seen to contain: A loaf of bread, a bag of pasta, one can of baked beans, some cheese, three apples, two carrots, one tomato, two baked potatoes, two bananas, two malt loaf snacks and three snack size tubes of fromage frais.
The food parcels are supposed to contain the equivalent of £30 ($40) worth of food to be spread over the 10 days.
"Issued instead of £30 vouchers".
Foodwriter Jack Monroe, who describes herself as a "former foodbank mum turned accidental activist", described the parcels as "offensively meagre scraps".
Speaking as controversy raged over the pictures, prime minister Boris Johnson's official spokesman said: "We're aware of those images circulating on social media, and it is clear that the contents of these food parcels are completely unacceptable".
The company has said the food depicted in the state school package does not "reflect the specification of one of our hampers". Following demonstrations, an open letter and a lot of fundraising, an agreement was reached between Chartwells and the university to place staff on furlough until March 2021.
The Department for Education said it had clear guidelines for food parcels. Parcels should be nutritious and contain a varied range of food'.
Rashford tweeted a thread of updates on the situation following a conversation with Chartwells.
The Department for Education said it will investigate the claims free school meals do not contain enough food.
Rashford also expressed concern about the number of meals being distributed to children, which is now just one meal per day from Monday to Friday.
It is unclear which company supplied the parcels in the above two photos. We MUST do better.
"Something is going wrong and we need to fix it, quickly!"
Chartwells, part of the Compass Food Group, is a large multinational contractor which provides catering services to thousands of schools, universities, hospitals and other establishments across the world, Sussex Food being just one of their clients.
He tweeted: "The images appearing online of woefully inadequate free school meal parcels are a disgrace".
Another user, Roadside Mum, costed out the contents of the parcel, valuing them at £5.22 if bought at her local supermarket.
