Free School Meals

From January 14th: ***Important***

If your child is in receipt of income related free school meals, I would be grateful if you could please Dojo me with your email address as we have found in the past that email addresses have changed but we haven't been informed.

The vouchers for the next few weeks will be emailed out to you as they are from a different system to the one I used at Christmas which sent a text to your mobile number. It is the same system we used in the summer - Edenred.

The ordering system is going to be opened on Monday to all schools in England who will also all be trying to log in so I fully expect to be in a queueing system for at least the first few days. I will be trying every day to upload your details for the vouchers to be sent and will keep you informed on Dojo so I would be grateful if you could avoid sending me messages asking where your vouchers are. Please be assured I will be working every day on getting them processed.

Thank you.

From Wednesday 13th January: **Food parcels for children in receipt of free school meals**

Parcels for this week will be delivered to school tomorrow, Thursday 14th, so please ensure you pop to school and collect it as they do contain perishable items and items that need to be refrigerated. You can come any time from 11.30am to 4pm - please remember to observe social distancing and wear a mask when on school premises.

Going forward, it looks like we will be able to issue vouchers as the Government has today announced it will be opening up the national voucher scheme from Monday 18th January.

From January 11th: Free School Meal Parcels

Guidance has been issued from both the Department for Education and today the Food in Schools Team at Lincolnshire County Council. The guidance confirms that schools should continue to use their local food provider to provide the food parcels for eligible children during this period of school closure.

This means that we will be providing a food parcel once a week for collection for all children eligible for income based free school meals.

The Government has agreed to increase the value of the boxes by £3.50 each week and the Farm Kitchen will be increasing the amount of food in the boxes.

This week, the parcels will be available on Thursday but from next week they will be available each Tuesday. I will send out reminders on the day.

It is really important that you collect the parcel on the day it is delivered to school as some of the items will require refrigeration and we don't have the room in school to store and refrigerate these items. They will be available from 11.30am until the school is locked at about 4pm. Please remember social distancing must be observed and please wear a mask when on school premises.

The following is copied straight from the DfE information which the LCC Food in Schools team have asked me to share with you:

• Providing food parcels through the school catering team or food provider
• We strongly encourage schools to work with their school catering team or food provider to provide food parcels to eligible free school meal pupils who are at home. Where school kitchens are open this should be the approach taken by schools.
• The government provides schools with funding to cover benefits-related free school meals. Schools can claim for additional funding of £3.50 per week for each eligible pupil receiving food parcel provision at home.

There are significant benefits of providing food parcels including:

• the confidence that a nutritious and varied range of food is being provided in line with guidance published by the Lead Association for Catering in Education, and that meets the school food standards
• being able to quickly set up provision as many school caterers will have experience of delivering food parcels
• supporting safeguarding through the opportunity to maintain regular contact with vulnerable pupils and ensure they receive healthy nutritious food
• reducing the risk of food waste, which catering suppliers may have already purchased
• the continuation of financial support to school caterers
• We have been working with the school food industry to explore the best possible arrangements where food parcels are needed.

Schools and families may find weekly collections of food parcels easier than a more frequent approach. Where parents are unable to collect the parcel, they can tell the school that they have asked a friend, volunteer or family member to collect it on their behalf.

From January 8th 2021: The food parcels for this week have arrived and are ready for collection.

I have named them as some are for families with 2 or more children which have been combined into one box. There is still the same amount per child.

Please ensure you take the correct box and observe social distancing, and please wear a mask.e parents are unable to collect the parcel, they can tell the school that they have asked a friend, volunteer or family member to collect it on their behalf.

From January 6th 2021: Meals in school and food boxes

From next week, the Farm Kitchen will only be offering a packed lunch option. We will be ordering a lunch for all Reception and Key Stage 1 children who are in school unless you know your child will not want it, in which case please let me know as soon as possible so I can reduce the numbers accordingly.

We will also order a packed lunch for our benefits related free school meal children in school.

If your Key Stage 2 child is in school and you would normally pay for a hot lunch, please send your child in with a packed lunch from home. I understand the Farm Kitchen will be opening up their online ordering system from the 18th January so you can log in and pay for their packed lunches from then on if you wish.

For this week, we are providing food parcels for our benefits related free school meal children not in school. We still don't know what the expectation is for subsequent weeks but will ensure we work with the guidance when we are given it.

The food parcels will be delivered to school on Friday and you can come to the foyer to collect them any time from 12pm. Please remember to observe social distancing, wear a face mask and only come in to the foyer one at a time to collect your box.

I am sorry that they are being delivered at the end of the week but I hope you understand that school and the Farm Kitchen are having to respond to things quickly and without much guidance from the DfE!