Free school meals vouchers

SM69

I have received two vouchers to use in compensation for my son not getting his free school meals to the value of £35.  My son has learning difficulties and my mother is elderly and we are fortunately getting weekly shopping deliveries from Sainsburys.  However the vouchers can only be used in store and as we are all meant to be staying at home, keeping safe etc why can't they issue vouchers which can be used to pay for online grocery shopping.  I now have these vouchers which I can't safely use until life gets back to normal.  Obviously civil servants don't do online grocery shopping!  For me £35 is a lot of money which is currently useless.

yksi

Was there a question here? I am not sure what you expect this forum to do.

Do you not know anyone who can shop for you in person? Could you shop alone and take extra precautions with disposable gloves and mask?

7Phil

Supermarkets are putting in measures to allow you to safely shop in store.

An example is that Tesco are even recommending people shop in store instead of online.

I think this is probably a customer service matter for Sainsbury's to deal with and help accommodate you but I think if you can only use the vouchers in store then you should go ahead and do that.

I don't agree that the vouchers are useless in this circumstance.

FtbDreaming

I’m sure 2 of the choice of supermarket were available to use as delivery. I chose Asda for mine. I will be going in store to buy the food though. Although your mother and som can’t go for the shopping, you should be able to. 

TheBanker

Like many of these schemes, this has been put in place quickly and will be far from perfect, but I am pleased to see that arrangements are being made so that children don't go hungry. Do you have any friends or neighbours who could spend these vouchers for you, if you cannot go to the shop yourself for whatever reason? 
I would imagine you are right that civil servants who designed this scheme don't use online shopping, since we have all been asked not to use online shopping unless absolutely necessary to leave the slots for the vulnerable. 

EssJayD

You can absolutely safely use them in store.  Leave online delivery slots for those who are really not supposed to go out, rather than those who'd just prefer not to.