Thread by @claireOT

Have just received notice from school that @LeedsCC_Help are offering FSM ‘hampers’ of food to help families like mine over Xmas. This is another example of people trying to help and getting it very very wrong

Families like mine have very specific needs for our food. And I plan my ‘budget’ very carefully. I don’t have a car, or a chest freezer, so I have to plan the pantry storage, too.

I don’t want factory farmed meat in my Christmas hamper. I plan my money carefully to eat less meat, but better quality and better farmed meat, with more protein and less water per lb and per £.

We only drink organic, semi-skimmed milk. We don’t need your UHT milk, or full fat ‘normal’ milk, and any delivered to us would be a waste of money.

We do use staples such as tins of beans, packets of passata, potatoes, pasta, and rice (own brand is fine), and we eat seasonal fruit and vegetables (and out-of-season very rarely, only for treats, because of food miles)

I’m great at getting the bargains when the supermarket marks down the expensive products (particularly meat), and we don’t eat much junk food, except bars of chocolate (but that’s *medicine*)

So why is my Council infantilising me by sending a hamper of food (that I expect to be poor quality) rather than a voucher for my local supermarket?

P.s. don’t say it’s ‘city wide’, because my kids’ Leeds primary school is sending a supermarket voucher (and thank you for trying to help low income families)

Unroll please @threadreaderapp