Free School meals

[Barmaid]

Does anyone know how these work? If a child is eligible, does the school provide the meal without payment or does the parent receive the money from the state?

[ummmm]

The school get paid from the council.

[ummmm]

Or the catering company if the school use one.

[4getmenot]

Can you imagine if te parent got the money. Some benefit cheating scum would be keeping the money and sending their child to school with no dinner

[dothawkes31]

I've seen mothers in the local spar paying for cigs with their milk tokens and so anything is possibe;

[redcrx]

the school get the funding and feed the child school meals.

[saxy_jag]

It used to be that you filled in a form from school and produced relevant documents to prove that you were eligible, and then you just didn't have to pay for dinners.

I'm not sure how it works now in secondary schools, where self-service is the norm. At my old school (many years ago) we were given meal tickets at the beginning of the week and these had to be handed in every day to a duty prefect before you could queue up for your meal.

[B00]

"'ve seen mothers in the local spar paying for cigs with their milk tokens and so anything is possibe;"

sorry dotty, I can't see how that is possible or accepted by Spar. These milk tokens are to be used for fruit, veg and milk and have to be sent back to errr whoever (dunno who) in order for you to get money back for these items, along with the till reciepts to confirm that they have been used for what the tokens state.

[joggerjayne]

I hope they have a way of doing it so that the child is not made to feel awkward.

[redcrx]

Oh it does happen, Boo.
I used to work for a couple of these convenience stores and often the tokens were taken for things other than they should be (instructions from HO)
Maybe the government have clamped down more now though, this was quite a while ago :)

[ummmm]

Years ago the milkman use to give our neighbour cash for her milk tokens. Just less than their value.

But in her favour...she didn't smoke or drink. But still....it happened.

[daffy654]

I've also seen people spend their milk tokens on cigs and beer, not recently though.

[ummmm]

JJ.....the system my sons school has is a card system. You top the card up at a machine....the free school meals kids get it topped up automatically. They can add to it if they want.

[sandyRoe]

A few years ago my nieces were eligible for free school meals. But the tickets were colour coded, one colour if your parents had paid, another if they hadn't. Both the girls refused to use them.

[oscarina]

All kids should get free school meals or pay a nominal fee for them. At least you would be sure that kids get fed, some hard working parents just miss out on the criteria for free school meals. As usual system all wrong!!

[daffy654]

My son's school has the same system as ummmm mentions.

[B00]

Crikey really?

We're obviously stricter at the Co op than alot of other places too!v We also will not allow the vouchers to be used for other foodstuffs either.

For example, quite a few customers will pile the till with shopping and their vouchers are produced afterwards. Either by deviousness or genuine not thinking about it, the total of their fruit and veg won't amount to the value of the token (£3.10) so they (hope?)think that we'll just knock the amount off their total shopping bill. Well we won't and dont.

[joggerjayne]

ummmm ...

That sounds like a good system.

I know kids can be a bit cruel to each other about things like that.

[dothawkes31]

B00 they do , seriously, I've seen em do it and recently, I suppose when the till is balanced it balances, that's all the shop assistant needs to know,

[daffy654]

When I was at school I was entitled to free school dinners (brought up in care) and we were given what looked like a bus ticket to pay with at the till after choosing our meals. All other pupils paid cash. It made us stand out as being different :(

[ummmm]

BOO....£3.10? and they can't manage to spend it on fruit and veg? Jeez...