'Why is a school asking parents to travel there for meals and why aren't foodbanks being asked to help?'
A Devon food bank says the government should help groups like them to deliver meals to struggling families - claiming the current system isn’t working during the lockdown.
Last updated 14th Jan 2021
It's after the Government promised footballer and campaigner Marcus Rashford it would review the system of delivering food - following outrage online at the size of some food parcels being given to struggling families..
Councillor David Cox, the chair of HITS or ‘Homeless In Teignbridge Support’, says in one case a school was encouraging parents to travel during the lockdown by offering hot meals to those who could get there - as the school had no means to deliver the food.
He said: "If parents want their children to have the free school meals they have to take their children to the school and queue for a meal - which seems to defeat the whole object of taking children out of school and of course requires the parents to pay for a bus fare if they can't drive.
"They have to take the entire family out and that's an unnecessary journey on public transport.
"There's a danger of spreading the virus so it's not worked.
"If schools or the authorities gave even a small amount of money to the local food banks I'm sure we could more than adequately deliver food to the families to feed them more adequately.
"We have volunteers which means we're cost effective at what we do.
"We're very lucky that Sibelco's given us a building rent free so every penny we receive, every ounce of food we have can go out.
"Everybody who effectively works in the food bank is a volunteer, we have no paid staff so everything is used to help get food out and I think that's probably the big problem - these firms were paid £30 a meal.
"By the time you've put distribution costs on there wasn;t much left to pay for all the food."
When contacted a spokesperson for Devon County Council, which oversees the school allowing parents to come and collect meals, said it was the 'schools’ responsibility' to provide meals for children eligible for free school meals in term time, - whether or not in lockdown and DfE guidelines apply.
They added that schools receive the funding direct from the Government and the authority has said to schools 'we will allow them to spend the money on our holiday voucher scheme if other options are not available'.
Yesterday Education Secretary Gavin Williamson said: “The contents of some of the food parcels we’ve all seen were clearly unacceptable and we will not tolerate substandard packages being provided to children. That’s why this afternoon, I met with the leading school food suppliers and caterers to insist on urgent action to make sure parcels meet the standards we expect.
“I know there are many examples of good lunch parcels and I’m grateful to those caterers who are working hard with schools to provide nutritious, balanced lunches for children.
“Where this isn’t happening we’ve set out a clear process for parents to raise concerns so appropriate action can be taken, by contacting their schools in the first instance or calling the Department helpline. We have also urged schools, academy trusts and councils to take robust action, including cancelling a contract where necessary.
“Since January 4, schools have also been able to arrange vouchers for local shops and supermarkets which can be given directly to parents, and we will reimburse and backdate these costs. Our national voucher scheme will reopen on Monday.”
Greatest Hits Radio has repeatedly contacted the Devon school allowing parents to collect their child's hot free school meal but has not yet received a response.