You may have seen recently alot in the news about the free school meals parcels being given out during lockdown to eligible children. Reuben like many others children in EYFS is entitled to receive free school meals and has received one of these parcels.
So What do You Actually Get?
The idea of the food parcel is to replace the need to provide lunches at home. So what actually comes in the parcel.
- 1 litre of semi-skimmed milk
- About 400g of grated cheese
- 1 cucumber
- 2 tomatoes
- 2 potatoes
- 1 Orange
- 1 loaf of white bread
- Tin of Peaches
- Tin of Sweetcorn
- Tin of Pear Halves
- Tin of Beans
We received the above parcel from the school but have had an email saying some items were missing which are the following
- Yoghurts
- Pieces of Fruit
- A Pack of Cooked Meat
What’s Wrong with the Parcel
Well if we simply look at what it’s for, just to cover lunches for a week then there is enough food there to cover Reubens lunches for a week. However the big issue is that the normal allocation for children per week is £15, and given that the food parcel value is less than £8 it stands to reason that the catering companies are profiteering out of this!!!.
What Meals Can You Make With The Food Parcel
Ok we are going to start off by saying in order to make most things its an assumption that you have some cupboard staples, such as cooking oil, flour,etc. However not everyone has even these few ingredients at home or even knows how to cook, and in some cases it’s exactly the reason why they have they child in school for a meal at lunchtime as its the only proper meal they get for the day.
We know it would be better for families to be given a food voucher rather than a food parcel. So Reuben and I thought what can we do to help other families so we decided to give people some ideas for meals that can be made using ONLY the food parcel contents. Plus don’t forget the fun you can have making lunch with your child.
Reuben and I decided to show what you can make with your food parcel, without the need for anything else, as we are already in extremely stressful times with lockdown, homeschooling, freezing weather and having to think of meal ideas is another headache you don’t need.
Food Parcel Recipes
- Beans on Toast – Using half the tin of beans and 2 slices of bread
- Jacket Potato with Cheese – Using one of the potatoes and 100g of the cheese (a great alternative to a normal jacket potato is to cook the potato, then cut it in half and scoop of the potato and mix it with the cheese and fill the two halves with the mixture)
- Jacket Potato with Beans – Using half the tin of beans and one of the potatoes
- Omelette – Using no oil and 2 of the eggs (Check out our next post for the recipe and fun)
- Sandwich – Using 2 slices of bread and some of the cheese or meat (maybe add some cucumber to take it up a notch)
- Eggy Bread aka French Toast – Using 2 of the eggs and 2 slices of bread (whisk the eggs in a bowl, dip the bread into the egg until coated and fry, this will fry in a dry pan without oil)
- Cheese Melt – Using 100g of the cheese and 2 slices of bread (place the grated cheese in a microwavable bowl and heat until just melted, then place the melted cheese between the two slices of bread, slice and enjoy)
- Boiled Egg with Soldiers – Using 2 of the eggs and 2 slides of bread (boil the eggs for about 3 minutes and toast the bread and cut into soldiers / fingers)
This list is by no means extensive and if you would like to know more ideas just drop a comment below, these ideas above are simple quick and yummy.
We hope this post has given anyone reading some ideas of how to use their food parcel, and lets hope the school lunch system gets sorted out and food vouchers issued, but in the meantime enjoy playing with these recipes and most importantly enjoy the time with your children.