UK parents struggle to afford school meals

(9 Dec 2022)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Birmingham - 30 November 2022
1. Various of students being served school lunch meal at Hillstone Primary School
2. Mid of a student picking some additional vegetables
3. Close of a student eating school meal
4. Mid of students eating school meal
5. Mid of a student eating school meal and another student with a packed lunch meal
6. Close of packed lunch meal
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Jason King, head teacher at Hillstone Primary School:
"When I started here 27 years ago, there were no food banks in the area. It wasn't heard of, I didn't know what one was. That's changed. We've got a lot of people, especially coming out of COVID, requiring help, some of those people on low incomes that were losing those jobs or with rising prices finding things difficult. Now we're getting people that are working, requesting help, seeing if we can help them, seeing if we could give them food bank vouchers. We did a food parcel for a parent in need just yesterday, Matthew our chef... they didn't qualify (for food bank vouchers), they've got no food at home. They come to us, we're not going to turn them away. So they went away with some food back from the school."
8. Wide of school entrance
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Louise Glew, parent and volunteer at Hillstone Primary School:
"Being here at the school and then you see children's lunchboxes aren't quite as big, are they? You see less in them because parents are prideful, they don't want to give up, they don't want to go 'no, I need help'. Where, you know, if the dinner was free for all of them (school children), they wouldn't need to. They would get a warm meal every day and the parent wouldn't have to panic thinking, oh, you know, 'have they had something warm, have they eaten enough?' Because they have, they would have had enough."
10. Wide of kitchen at school
11. Various of chefs cooking school lunch
ASSOCIATED PRESS
London - 29 November 2022
12. SOUNDBITE (English) Anna Taylor, executive director of the Food Foundation:
"So there's about 800,000 children in England who are living below the poverty line but that are not eligible for free school meals. It's those children that we're really, really worried about right now during the cost of living crisis, because those families are having to make really tough choices about where they spend their money. That'll often mean they won't pay for a school meal. Instead, they'll give their child a packed lunch. And those packed lunches are nine times out of ten they're nutritionally much more inferior to a school lunch. And sometimes we've been hearing from teachers that children are going to school with empty lunchboxes or with stuff in their lunch boxes that they're very ashamed to show to their friends and they're hiding their lunch boxes. So we know that there's this group of children that fall just outside eligibility, which are really in desperate need right now and it's those children that we're concerned about."
13. Wide of Taylor speaking
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Birmingham - 30 November 2022
14. Wide of chefs cooking school lunch
15. Mid of school lunch at kitchen
16. Various of chef preparing for lunch
STORYLINE:
As the school bell rings, dozens of children - from the youngest 4-year-olds to the oldest at 11 - begin filing into the canteen at Hillstone Primary School.
Today’s offering, a roast dinner, is a popular one, and many are keen to tuck into their plates of turkey slices, roasted potatoes, broccoli and gravy.
Some parents have even approached the school for food.
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[@MusicLover-ui9sm]

All children should get free breakfast and lunch at school

[@galegrazutis964]

In Australia the only thing we got was access to a water fountain at school!

[@freakinfrugal5268]

The lunches at the school looked pretty fantastic. I have always packed my children's lunches - very full lunch boxes with lots of choices - I could never afford to buy school lunches for them - that would be like taking them out to a restaurant every day. Whenever they ask if they can have school lunch someday, I say, "no, probably not. School lunch is for kids whose moms don't love them enough to pack their lunch." They do not buy into my reasoning though! There's no free lunch program at our school. If you are getting school lunch, you have money to burn. My older girl went to a very posh school that had lots of choices at the cafeteria, including a beautiful salad bar. She said all the kids just got bagels or pizza.

[@kamaldeepjohal9372]

Well said.

[@joycemanning1254]

Pack your children a lunch. There should be no school lunches to buy. My parents were working poor and I has a lunch. They couldn’t afford junk food. I survived.

[@jessetorres8738]

I live in the U.S. & I remember once seeing this PSA years ago where 6 kids are in school & during lunch 1 of them has no food so a kid that brought their lunch gave the boy some chips. The PSA was about how roughly 1 in 6 kids in the U.S. face poverty in that they go hungry & for many lunch at school may be the only meal they get a day.

[@TheSuperPsychoKiller]

Maybe the poor kid’s parents should work harder and get better jobs. Why should tax payers pay for someone’s choice of raising a child?

[@ayela562]

@@TheSuperPsychoKiller and maybe you should find a hobby other than being an internet troll.

[@TheSuperPsychoKiller]

@@ayela562 internet troll is your face.You’re trolling now. Hypocrite

[@seiwarriors]

@@TheSuperPsychoKiller You can't blame the kid for their parents choice.

[@TheSuperPsychoKiller]

@@seiwarriors The government should limit help per household like maybe two children per household and ask the dead beat father for financial support or else he should be forced into a work house to pay for his children.

[@okanovicka]

In sweden al kids have free lunch in school ftom kindergarden to gymnasium we pay al that true taxes

[@sandrafinbar]

That's really great. I think the difference is Sweden has about 8million and the Uk about 68 million people.

[@Maria7Maria]

@@sandrafinbar it's all relative though... the UK also has some of the world's wealthiest earners, who are (in my view) not taxed fairly. Sweden does not have so much poverty because they actually invest the taxes they do raise, into services that really work for the public. We seem to mismanage everything in the UK, I used to work in housing support and it's shocking the amount of waste, incompetence and underfunding

[@terrylynn9984]

We don't have school lunches in Canada for free and if there is those programs are few and far between, ironically in the US there is free school lunches for those in need and foodstamps.

[@thetruthisthis7736]

But, YOU "Scandinabians" Steal from the Woirld..just like the Other White "Western" SLAVes. And the "minority"..Black, Brown Arab, INDO, with the Yellow Japanese, Chinese Conspire with you "White" SLAVes. ..youre all 'JEWS"..Impersonasting GOD. 89% of the World are JEWS.

[@nebhalabir1201]

Wow swedensitan

[@MizMite2002]

We bagged our lunch in the 70s. so tough for youth today.

[@freakinfrugal5268]

1:10 I'd recommend a different color tie, something bright (red, blue, pink, purple, a santa patterns) to contrast with the grey jacket.

[@hughmcbeath5463]

My goodness that's so sad

[@slugabuny9949]

Quality food in uk looks like Only slop In usa

[@finanzferdinand9874]

Voice over on holiday?

[@flutterbyenterprises8452]

Pm should feel shame.

[@viktoriakireeva5860]

1:45 It’s probably better that their lunch boxes are not big - they won’t have to face the problem of becoming super-morbidly-obese later in life 🤨