Marcus Rashford slams free school meal food parcels as ‘not good enough’

A mum has shared the contents of the Free School Meal bag she was provided on Twitter, leaving many people shocked, including Labour MPs and Marcus Rashford. 

The unnamed mum who uses the Twitter account ‘RoadsideMum’ shared a photo of the food parcel she received, estimating the total cost to be just £5.22 instead of the £30 voucher she is entitled to.

The furious mum added a picture of the food, that is meant to feed her children for 10 days. It included a loaf of bread, pack of pre-sliced cheese, two bananas, three apples, two carrots, one tomato, two small portions of Soreen, a pack of pasta, two potatoes, three Frubes and one tin of Heinz No Added Sugar Beans. 

The food parcel was issued instead of a £30 voucher.  The mum wrote: “I could do more with £30 to be honest.”

One mum, Jack Monroe, who is also an author, TV presenter and activist, has taken to Twitter to share varying food shops of a £20 value at different supermarkets. 

She added a picture of a massive food shop for £20 without using bulk discount and the differences are astonishing. 

Chartwells UK responded to RoadsideMum on Twitter, writing: “Thank you for bringing this to our attention, this does not reflect the specification of one of our hampers. Please can you DM us the details of the school that your child attends and we will investigate immediately.”

One Twitter user replied to the thread saying: “Hampers! That is a pitiful amount of rubbish. Why this has to be put into the hands of a profiteering, private company is beyond me.

“This lady and the many others know how to feed their children decent food. Yet they are not trusted with a voucher to shop for food. Scandalous!”

Many people are calling for Chartwells to release specifications and/or images of what their ‘food hampers’ should look like. Others are calling for them to release the documents that indicate what was agreed with the government to supply each child. 

Many others are sharing their shopping lists that either equal £30 or are less, and they are considerably larger than this attempt. 

Labour Deputy Leader Angela Rayner has weighed in on the situation, writing: “A 50 grand bonus for Dominic Cummings. £22bn wasted on failed test and trace. £1bn in contracts dished out to their donors and cronies.

“Yet this is what the Tories decide to give our hungry children to feed them for 10 days.  Disgusting, disgraceful and we will not accept this.”

Marcus Rashford has now also criticised the free school meal packages, writing: “3 days of food for 1 family … Just not good enough”.

He later added: “Then imagine we expect the children to engage in learning from home. Not to mention the parents who, at times, have to teach them who probably haven’t eaten at all so their children can … We MUST do better. This is 2021.”

Labour leader Keir Starmer has also called out the parcels, describing the situation as ‘a disgrace’. He tweeted: “The images appearing online of woefully inadequate free school meal parcels are a disgrace. Where is the money going?”

He added: “This needs sorting immediately so families don’t go hungry through lockdown.”

The Department for Education has replied also, tweeting: “We have clear guidelines and standards for food parcels, which we expect to be followed.”

However, MP Simon Clarke – who voted against giving vouchers to children in school holidays – accused people of whipping ‘a storm up on Twitter’.

He wrote: “There are a lot of people seeking to whip a storm up on Twitter tonight. Too much to hope in age of instant outrage to wait for the facts before jumping in. DfE are likewise investigating.”

Government guidelines state that packages should contain food items instead of prepared meals so parents can make healthy lunches. Plus it adds that parcels should not rely on parents having additional ingredients at home. The hampers should also cater for pupils of all diets.