130 families provided food parcels thanks to Thomas Hardye School

The Thomas Hardye School in Dorchester are providing food parcels for over 130 families during lockdown.

Packs are provided weekly but are put together more as support for the family, rather than in terms as lunches for one child.

Mr Foley headmaster of The Thomas Hardye School school said: “We are trying to help as much as we can during this hard time.”

Local businesses have been assisting the project by providing items to put in the food hampers.

The Kiwi butcher in Dorchester – Dion Tantrum – has been finding the best value local produce and packaging it in handy sizes.

He is currently hand making 1,500 sausages every week.

Craig’s Farm Dairy are also letting the school have eggs at cost and supplying them with locally produced cheddar cheese.

Mr Foley said: “With all the news on the pitiful quality of food parcels, I thought you might be interested in what goes into ours: 2kg washed potatoes, 1kg of carrots, 800g tin of baked beans, 800g tin of tomatoes, 185g tin of Tuna, 4 bananas, 4 apples, 2 onions, 500g pasta, 500g rice, 500g meat (minced beef, pork, or four chicken legs), 6 handmade pork sausages (500g approx.) 400g mature cheddar cheese, 125g sliced ham, 10 free range eggs”

During term time the food packs are funded by the school free school meals budget.

Each pack cost approximately £15 to provide and DASP/MAT schools are invoiced for the packs they order.

Mr Foley said: “The packs are designed to support the family rather than lunches for the child.”

During the first lockdown for seventeen weeks the school provided on average nighty-six packs a week to students at The Thomas Hardye School and eighty-nine packs to DASP/MAT schools.

This lockdown they are providing one-hundred and fourteen packs per week to students at The Thomas Hardye School, but other schools are down to twenty-four per week.

The Schools aim has been to buy in bulk as they get a much better deal than people can in supermarkets which is why they have stuck with the parcels and hampers route instead of vouchers.

There has been widespread criticism since a photo was put on Twitter by a Mum after she received her food parcel from Chartswells, a foodservice company.

 

The photo was shared more than 27,000 times and was criticised by footballer Marcus Rashford.

Chartwells has written an apology which said: “We are very sorry the quantity has fallen short in this instance.”

 

 

The Thomas Hardye School have said that packs are available for any student entitled to free school meals and parents received a letter inviting them to book a pack. The 6^th form team have also referred students who are receiving the bursary.