School staff deliver food parcels to struggling Kidderminster families
School staff have been delivering emergency food parcels to struggling Kidderminster families, after problems with the Government scheme.
Baxter College principal, Matthew Carpenter, decided to take action after two weeks of struggling with the national system.
Prior to Easter, schools found their own suppliers of the £15-a-week vouchers which eligible families could spend in supermarkets, but then the Department for Education (DFE) stepped in with a national voucher scheme through French-owned Edenred.
But despite a major upgrade of its website over the bank holiday weekend, Mr Carpenter said the system was still plagued by errors and was letting down families, causing them further hardship.
He said: “The Government made a great offer, to extend free school meal vouchers during the Easter holidays, but shot itself in the foot by contracting a company to run the scheme nationally, which simply doesn’t have the capacity.
“The system is slow, clunky and not designed to support families. I was 128,000th in the queue when I went to their website to print vouchers for parents.
“We have spent days trying to sort this out. I even contacted our MP Mark Garnier, who has lobbied the DfE on our behalf and came out to help our staff deliver the parcels, along with his wife Caroline, which was a big help.
“We had already sent a food parcel to a family who had no money and an empty fridge and we couldn’t let such problems escalate, so we delivered to 30 families on Tuesday.”
Logistical
Mr Carpenter said his school had applied immediately the scheme was announced, but had still faced delays in obtaining the required e-codes needed to process the vouchers. It is understood many schools have not yet even received the e-codes.
Baxter College delivered food parcels to all 180 free school meal students in the first week of the general schools’ closure but moved to the vouchers for logistical reasons.
Mr Garnier, MP for Wyre Forest said: “I am very concerned by what I have heard from Baxter head Matthew Carpenter, about the significant problems with food vouchers for those in need.
“When a crisis strikes, it is inevitable that things take a bit of time to settle down, and that is why I have been in contact with Education Secretary Gavin Williamson.
“But, feeding a family is not something that can wait and that is why I wanted to help get food parcels out to those who need them, and to see for myself what my constituents are facing in these extraordinary times."
