Catering company reveal new Free School Meal hampers after increase in funding

A catering company has released what their new free school meal hampers will look like going forward - after parents and headteachers in Northampton criticised hampers eariler this week as "inadequate".

The hampers created by Dolce Schools Catering were criticised this week after unhappy parents shared images with the Chronicle & Echo of what they received.

An image of one of these hampers showed it contained a tin of Heinz beans, a tin of spaghetti hoops, a loaf of bread, two carrots, two potatoes, an apple, an orange, a bag of grated cheese, a sandwich bag of pasta and three Frubes.

The mother-of-two who received it called the offering "shameful", while a Northampton headteacher said the hampers they had seen were "totally inadequate to feed a child for a week".

Now, Dolce has announced it is providing the hampers on a not-for-profit basis and shared new images of what they will offer in the future following an increase in Government subsidies, with added yogurts, milk and recipe cards.

Last Friday, No 10 announced it would increase the money available to put together the hampers, but Dolce's hampers this week did not benefit from that money.

It comes after this week saw a national backlash over the hampers, which were introduced as a replacement for the free school meals voucher scheme and typically were made to feed a child lunches for a school week, or five days.

However, images of the hampers contents - which have been described as "not worth even a fiver" - soon drew criticism from parents, politicians and food campaigner Marcus Rashford.

It has led to a Government U-turn that will make vouchers available again from Monday while the hamper subsidy is upped to £15.

In Northampton, one headteacher - who asked not to be named - told the Chron her own school's hampers, provided by Dolce Schools Catering, had been "demeaning for parents".

The headteacher told the Chron: "We passed on the numbers on to the catering service to make up the hampers. But they have been totally inadequate to feed a child for a week.

"We calculated the cost of our hampers was around £3.50 when they should have been between £12 and £15 minimum.

"We are in communications with our providers and they have come back to us with an alternative. We would have preferred the vouchers. It's been quite demeaning for our parents."

Dolce School Catering serves upwards of 60 schools in Northamptonshire.

Now, Dolce has responded to the criticism in a statement.

Dolce owner and director Adam Curtis said: "Schools receive funding directly from the Government for the food hampers. Up until this week, we received between £7 and £11.50 from schools (depending on the school) to cover our various costs in providing them.

“While food hampers aren’t comparable to supermarket vouchers, due to wholesale prices and the associated costs of running a school kitchen, they are created to comply with the Government’s nutritional guidelines for five and 10 days’ worth of lunches for a primary school pupil.”

The statement continues: “We have opted to provide our hampers as a not-for-profit service, offering lunches each day to those that are homeschooling. They include a nutritionally-balanced lunch for every day of the school week and we also include recipe cards to make it more educational and enjoyable.

“We very much welcome the Government’s announcement of an increase in the school meal hamper subsidy (from £11.50 to £15), which is being rolled out by school catering providers across the country."