Free school meal vouchers to be handed out instead of ‘woefully inadequate’ food parcels 

The education secretary has confirmed parents will receive vouchers instead of hampers. 

Gavin Williamson, education secretary, told the education committee in the House of Commons that the £15 voucher scheme will return next week after the government received criticism over the free school meal hampers. 

The U-turn from the government will see the return of £15 meal vouchers for supermarkets so parents can buy their own meals for children. 

Speaking to the committee, Mr Williamson said: “As a dad myself, I thought, ‘How could a family in receipt of that really be expected to deliver five nutritious meals as is required?’ It’s just not acceptable.” 

This week several pictures of food hampers were shared across social media with parents stressing how inadequate the parcels were to feed their children.

Speaking on one such image that came from the company Chartwells, Mr Williamson said ‘we will not live with that’.

He said: “There are clear standards that are set there that they need to deliver against and if they do not deliver against them, actions will have to be taken.”

He went onto add that the government would ‘name and shame’ companies which are not delivering high standards.

Tweeting today, the education secretary said: “I’ll be meeting with school catering firms today to make clear that the poor examples of lunch parcels we have seen are unacceptable. All parcels must meet the standards we expect to be adhered to. Every pupil needs a nutritious lunch.”

Chartwells apologised yesterday that the ‘quantity has fallen short in this instance’, and added that any costs will be refunded of parcels which have ‘not met usual high standards’. It added that from Monday the company would add an extra £3.50 of funding to food parcels.

Families eligible for free school meals can choose between food parcels or vouchers while schools are shut during the third national lockdown in England. 

The initial picture posted by RoadsideMum on Twitter has now racked up 19,000 retweets. Campaigner and Manchester United footballer, Marcus Rashford said ‘children deserve better than this’. 

He posted on Wednesday morning that he had a conversation with prime minister Boris Johnson and that the PM also thought the pictures were ‘unacceptable’. 

He said: “He has assured me that he is committed to correcting the issue with the food hampers and that a full review of the supply chain is taking place.

“He agrees that images of hampers being shared on Twitter are unacceptable.”

Children’s minister Vicky Ford, who called the pictures ‘completely unacceptable’, says she has met with the boss of Chartwells who has ‘taken immediate action to stop further deliveries of poor-quality parcels’.

“They will ensure schools affected are compensated and they will provide additional food to the eligible child in line with our increased funding,” said Ms Ford.