THE government has been accused of “starving children” after a “£30” food parcel was found to contain just £8.69 worth of shopping.
It comes after Manchester United ace Marcus Rashford slammed the “unacceptable” free-school meal parcel meant to last families 10 days.
The paltry package contained bread, a tin of beans, two carrots, two bananas, three apples, two spuds, pasta, eight single cheese, slices three Frubes, a tomato and malt loaf.
One woman used an Asda online shopping calculator to tot up the cost and shame the government.
She added full packets of vegetables instead of single items and it still came to less than £9.
Posting her results on Twitter, she wrote: “If my calculations serve me correctly – this is £8.69 worth of food and that is for full packets of veg too.
“Conservatives, Boris Johnson – £30 worth of food? Stop lying to yourselves and stop starving children.”
‘FIX THIS NOW’
The parcels are sent to families of children entitled to free-school meals who are learning remotely during the Covid pandemic.
Other parents also shared photos of their measly free school meal replacements, as Three Lions’ star Rashford blasted “fix this now”.
One mum took to Twitter, posting a snap showing bread, cheese, potatoes and beans, among other items, adding: “Issued instead of £30 vouchers.
“I could do more with £30 to be honest.”
Rashford immediately replied to her tweet, asking: “Where is this being rolled out?
“If families are entitled to £30 worth of food, why is there delivery only equating to just over £5?! 1 child or 3, this what they are receiving? Unacceptable.”
He followed this up by tweeting: “Children deserve better than this…”
Catering firm Chartwells said it would investigate.
A spokesman tweeted: “Thank you for bringing this to our attention, this does not reflect the specification of one of our hampers.”
HUNGRY CHILD
Rashford then posted a picture of another family’s small food bundle that was meant to last for three days.
Meanwhile, one hungry child asked their mum why she’d been put on a diet when she was served up a lunch from their food parcel.
The child’s mum said: “I’ve decided to take this as a challenge baring in mind that my children have the cooked school lunch. Day1. I cooked her small portion of pasta.
“Chopped & blended the 3 toms & heated up, added 3 slices of chopped ham, tossed in the cooked pasta and cucumber strips on the side.
“For dessert she had the banana. For drink 1 bottle of the water. She was still hungry and asked why the school had put her on a diet.
“What’s for the other 4 days is left is some ham, 2 oranges, 2 apples, 2 potatoes, 3 water and 1 tin of beans.”
Rashford has raised £20million for FareShare and has helped out in Manchester foodbanks with his mum Melanie.
He has previously told how the single mum relied on free meals and did 14-hour shifts to feed him and his four siblings growing up.
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer branded the parcels “a disgrace” and “woefully inadequate”.
He added: “Where is the money going? This needs sorting immediately so families don’t go hungry through lockdown.”
The Department for Education tweeted: “We have clear guidelines and standards for food parcels, which we expect to be followed.”
The Department of Health and the Department of Education said they were looking into the claims.
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