Marcus Rashford condemns free school meal parcels as 'unacceptable'

Marcus Rashford has condemned a child’s free school meal parcel as “unacceptable” amid claims that private companies have been profiting from the scheme.

The England striker turned food poverty campaigner, who was made an MBE in the Queen's birthday honours list after he forced a Government U-turn on free school meal vouchers, has said that “children deserve better”.

His remarks came amid a social media storm over the quality of free school meal “hampers” which have been delivered to pupils’ homes after schools were forced to close last week.

One mother published a photograph of her child’s food delivery on Twitter which included a load of broad, a tin of baked beans, two bananas, some cheese, three apples, two carrots, two potatoes, three Frubes, one tomato, a bag of pasta and two packets of Soreen.

She claimed that the food parcel has been “issued instead of £30 vouchers”, adding: “I could do more with £30 to be honest”.

Chartwells, the company that provided the meal in question, has apologised and Downing Street has ordered an urgent investigation into the issue.

The mother, who tweets under the name “Roadside Mum”,  said the items would have cost around £5.22 in Asda and accused the Chartwells, the catering company that provided the good delivery, of making a “good profit”.

An analysis by the consumer tracking service Alertr for The Telegraph found that the items would cost roughly £5.24 in Tesco or £4.08 in Morrisons.

Chartwells has subsequently clarified that the package was for five days worth of lunches, which would be equivalent to £15 of food vouchers rather than £30.

The tweet by "Roadside Mum" prompted dozens of other parents to share images of their children’s food deliveries on social media, which had been provided by school caterers.

Downing Street has said the contents of some free school meal food parcels are "completely unacceptable" and that the Government is urgently investigating the issue.

The Prime Minister's official spokesman said: "We're aware of those images circulating on social media, and it is clear that the contents of those food parcels are completely unacceptable.

"The Department for Education is looking into this urgently and the minister for children, Vicky Ford, is speaking to the company responsible and they will be making it clear that boxes like this should not be given to families."

On Tuesday night, doctors at the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH) demanded review of food packages delivered to pupils eligible for free school meals.

"In the last 24 hours, we've seen multiple examples of food parcels provided to families through the free school meals programme,” said Dr Max Davie, the RCPCH’s officer for health improvement.

"The contents are not nutritionally sufficient for children and young people. Children who rely on free school meals have worse health outcomes than their peers and deserve proper help. The examples shared are an insult to the dignity of people who rely on this support."

The Government has said that its national voucher scheme - where children eligible for free school meals are given £15 vouchers per week to spend in supermarkets - will reopen “shortly”. Until then, official DfE guidance says that schools should work with their existing catering supplier to provide food parcels for children at home.

Chartwells is a subsidiary of the food giant Compass Group which has previously been accused of shortchanging schools on children’s lunches.

In 2015, Chartwells, part of Compass Group’s USA, settled a whistleblower case involving a school meal programme in Washington DC, for $19.4 million (£14.2 million).

The complaint alleged that schools paid millions more for meals than they should have and that food was repeatedly “delivered late, the number of meals was insufficient or the food was of poor quality or spoiled.”

In 2012, Compass Group USA settled for $18 million (£13.2 million) with more than 39 New York schools. At the time, Attorney General Schneiderman said: “Compass improperly profited by overcharging New York’s taxpayers and shortchanging our schools. There are no excuses for this kind of misconduct.”   In both civil claims, Compass Group USA did not admit liability.

A spokesperson for Chartwells said that they launched an investigation into Roadside Mum’s picture and found that it shows “five days of free school lunches (not ten days) and the charge for food, packing and distribution was actually £10.50 and not £30 as suggested”.

They added: “However, in our efforts to provide thousands of food parcels a week at extremely short notice we are very sorry the quantity has fallen short in this instance.

“Our ten-day hampers typically include a wide variety of nutritious food items to support the provision of lunches for children.”