NEWS FOCUS: Catering firm says review of food caused delays as families go without supplies for 13 days
WITH THE return of home learning, the government pledged to provide Free School Meals to children — but some in the borough have been left waiting for nearly two weeks.
When lockdown restarted on January 5, the government instructed schools to arrange weekly food parcels or vouchers worth up to £15.
A borough parent, who wanted to remain anonymous, told Wokingham.Today their child did not receive any Free School Meal provisions for 13 days.
“We’ve had a lot of issues with Free School Meals and, as of Saturday, we had still received nothing,” they said.
Shortly after the lockdown announcement, the resident said they were contacted by their child’s school and advised that they would receive a food parcel soon.
“By Tuesday, January 12, we had no update,” the parent explained. “I reached out to the school and they said that they had only just started working with their supplier, Caterlink, and hoped to get parcels sent out by the next day.
“I’ve had to do my own thing and we’ve been left to our own devices.”
Instead, the family turned to charities.
“I would normally rely on my child being able to eat at school, but I’ve been supported by a charity who sent out some provisions,” the parent said.
“The food was supposed to accompany what the school had already given us, so it was very welcome.
“We were also lucky that we had some additional provisions left from First Days Children’s Charity from Christmas, which gave us some extra food.”
Nationally, food hampers came under fire this month, with parents sharing images on social media of halved vegetables sent to them.
Following this, Wokingham Borough Council’s contractor, Caterlink, said it “enhanced the contents” of its hampers.
Neil Fuller, managing director at Caterlink said: “We have listened to feedback from parents and pupils, and in some cases it is clear our parcels have fallen short.”
This, he said, was immediately reviewed.
A spokesperson for the parent’s school, which we have chosen not to identify, said the review caused a delay in delivery.
“As lockdown for schools commenced at extremely short notice, we had to manage our transition to remote education, while continuing to provide on-site education to a high proportion of key worker and vulnerable children,” they said.
“At all times we have had to consider the mental wellbeing and safeguarding of all pupils as well as staff, including limiting footfall on site where possible.”
The spokesperson said that in line with government guidance, the school opted to provide food hampers for children eligible for Free School Meals who were not attending school.
“Due to the controversy in the national press over the contents of food hampers, Caterlink had undergone a review of their offer, and unfortunately this led to a delay in the delivery of hampers to our parents,” the spokesperson said.
“Those hampers were delivered to our parents by the evening of Tuesday, January 19.”
Cllr UllaKarin Clark, executive member for children’s services said the council has been made aware of one family whose hamper had been delayed.
“We have spoken to the school in this case and know the school has now provided vouchers to their eligible children,” she said.
On Monday, the parent received a £90 food voucher to cover six weeks’ worth of Free School Meals up to the February half-term.
They were also able to collect the delayed food hamper on Tuesday afternoon, to cover their child’s lunches for the next two weeks.
“It doesn’t feel like providing the meals has been a priority at all,” they said. “While we’re getting vouchers and a hamper now, that period where we had no support has already gone.”
Who qualifies for Free School Meals?
Children of all ages may be eligible for Free School Meals if they live in a household receiving income-related benefits, for example universal credit or income support.
In England, households earning a maximum of £7,400 after tax not including any benefits, are eligible to make a claim.
Children who qualify for Free School Meals are eligible until they finish the phase of schooling they are in on March 21, 2022.
All infants in state schools qualify for Free School Meals during term time, too, regardless of their household income.
Free School Meals in Wokingham
In the borough, there were 2,183 children and young people enrolled on the Free School Meals scheme as of October 2020.
Over the past five years, the percentage of students eligible for the scheme has increased, and is at its highest in the past five years.
As of October 2020, 8% of all primary and secondary students are eligible for the scheme. This rose from 7% in January last year.
As of January 2016, 6% of students were enrolled.
Following the lockdown announcement earlier this month, Wokingham Borough Council pledged to help arrange Free School Meal provisions for pupils at home, with fortnightly hampers from Caterlink and food vouchers for eligible families.
It said the majority of these have been delivered successfully, and within an appropriate time frame, and daily packed lunches were offered as an interim solution to all schools in the borough. Schools could decide whether or not to accept.
“This third lockdown is hard on all of us, but it is especially difficult on families with school age children,” said Cllr Clark.
“We want to ensure we support our families as best we can, and one of the ways to do this is to ensure all those children who would normally get free school meals if they were at school are still getting healthy and nutritious food.”
Cllr Clark said the council is offering food vouchers which can be used at various supermarkets across the borough, but the responsibility to provide meals lies with individual schools.
“We have also been working with our free school meals provider, Caterlink, to create hampers of food with recipe cards that can be delivered to eligible families if they prefer this to the vouchers,” she added.
“We have reviewed the hampers to ensure they provide nutritious meals for the children and are good value.
“I can’t stress enough that we do not want any children in our borough to go hungry and we are doing everything we can as a council to ensure all our children have access to good nutritious food.”
Caterlink is working with 34 out of the 69 state schools in the area, and offers two separate hampers for primary and secondary school students.
The council said the hampers are in line with food standards and LACA guidelines.
What else is the council doing?
Wokingham Borough Council is covering the cost of Free School Meal food vouchers during February half-term through the government’s £170 million Covid Winter Grant Scheme.
Last year, the council approved £100,000 to cover the cost of the vouchers during the Christmas and February school holidays.
The money came from the £208,000 grant it received as part of the government programme.
It is also supporting families struggling to pay for food, fuel and other essentials through the Covid Winter Grant.
Looking to the future, council leader Cllr John Halsall said while they cannot eradicate poverty in the borough, it is developing a strategy to alleviate it as much as possible.
“Our position is we would be very supportive if the government decides to extend Free School Meals to the holidays permanently, but that’s up to the government,” he explained.
“It’s complicated by the fact that while we can intervene in holiday time, during term-time, it’s the schools that are driving it.”
Opposition councillors are calling for more
At tonight’s council meeting, Cllr Andy Croy, Wokingham Borough Council Labour group leader, will be asking about the council’s Free School Meals provision.
He said families deserve “continued support” as pupils learn from home.
“It is evident in some parts of the country that the food parcels being provided in lieu of Free School Meals are totally inadequate,” he said.
He will ask Cllr UllaKarin Clark, executive member for children’s services, to list the food items Caterlink is providing to each child, along with their national supermarket cost.
“My immediate concern is that people are profiting out of the delivery of these parcels to children,” Cllr Croy told Wokingham.Today.
“I want to make sure that the families are getting their entitlement, and that money isn’t being siphoned off somewhere else.”
At the same meeting, Cllr Prue Bray (Lib Dem), ward councillor for Winnersh, will submit a motion to expand the borough council’s Free School Meal offering.
She said the impact of the pandemic is likely to lead to further increases in child poverty, and welcomed Wokingham Borough Council’s guaranteed Free School Meal support over half-term.
She is calling on the council to write to Gavin Williamson MP, secretary of state for education, and Rishi Sunak MP, chancellor of the exchequer, to ask for the expanded Free School Meals scheme to become permanent.
The expanded programme offers meals to those with no access to public funds and provides additional funding to councils to help.
Cllr Bray also wants the council to cover the cost of Free School Meals throughout all school holidays in 2021, using the government’s £208,000 grant.
She wants the council to work with local businesses, charities and organisations to ensure no child in Wokingham goes hungry, “whether they meet the eligibility for Free School Meals or not”.
Cllr Bray told Wokingham.Today: “We are one of the wealthiest boroughs in the country, so I want to make sure we are clear on what the council is going to do.
“We know that we have a problem with people who are right on the margins of being eligible for Free School Meals.
“Particularly in the last few months, there are a lot of people whose income has been hit hard and are not on benefits so don’t qualify for the scheme — and they are really struggling.”
Retrospective vouchers
The government said parents who received an “inadequate”lunch parcel between Monday, January 4, and Saturday, January 16, can claim for a locally-arranged food voucher.
Matt Rodda, MP for Reading East, said he is “very disappointed” with the government’s provisions for families in need.
“It worries me deeply that the government is putting families last at this difficult time,” he said. “I’d like a complete rethink on how it supports families, including extending more generous universal credit.”
Cllr Croy suggested a cash-based system instead.
“Wokingham Labour argues that the best form of provision would be cash instead of giving children or families food parcels, which we can see have been problematic, or vouchers which are limited to a few markets,” he said.
“The evidence around the misuse of cash is zero.”
He added: “In Woodley, we had parents who, by the middle of the first week of lockdown, still hadn’t heard anything or received a food voucher.
“To me, that’s not the council’s or schools’ fault but a functionof the chaotic way the government has handled the opening of schools.”
Charities step in to help
In a bid to help families receiving Free School Meals, a number of local charities banded together.
Juliet Sherratt, founder of Woodley Lunch Bunch, said some of the families she is in contact with were also without food parcels or vouchers.
“That rang alarm bells, so we decided to put some food together to help,” she said.
“It was never intended to replace the hampers, because they need to come from the government, but to top up what parents already had.”
Woodley Lunch Bunch has been working with Wokingham Foodbank and SHARE Wokingham to distribute food to families in need.
“We just bumped their supplies up a bit to help plug any gaps. It was really a team response,” Ms Sherratt said.
She believes that schools and families have both found themselves in a “horrible position”.
“There’s a lot falling on schools at the moment,” she said. “Teachers are knackered, the pandemic has been ongoing, and they’ve had to respond to such a quick turnaround.”
Claire Revie, SHARE Wokingham volunteer, said the number of people relying on her charity’s services has increased over the last two weeks.
“Last week alone, we created around 170 food parcels,” Ms Revie explained. “When families have the kids at home, they aren’t only concerned with providing them lunch — kids are eating all day.
“We’re trying to help out by providing any extra snacky bits.”
She added: “Everybody is welcome at SHARE, please get in touch.”
