AN ANGRY mother has slammed the free school meals scheme after she claimed to have been sent just over £5 worth of food to feed her child for 10 days.

An investigation has now been launched after a woman who goes by the Twitter handle @Roadsidemum shared a photo of the delivery she had received – which she estimated to have cost £5.22 rather than the £30 worth of food she should be entitled to.

Parents who normally qualify for free school meals have been given the option of food parcels or vouchers as the country’s schools close to all but vulnerable kids and the children of key workers.

The image, which has now been shared over 20,000 times, shows the contents of the food package – which includes a loaf of bread, a tin of beans, two baked potatoes, apples and bananas, Soreen bars, a tomato, cheese singles and some pasta.

In a post along side the picture she said: “Issued instead of £30 vouchers. I could do more with £30 to be honest.”

In a second Tweet she added: “Public funds were charged £30. I'd have bought this for £5.22.

“The private company who have the #FSM contract made good profit here.”

A spokesman for the company which provided the hamper on behalf of the scheme, Chartwells, has since responded to the woman’s social media post, stating the hamper ‘did not reflect’ the specification of the items they were handing out.

It read: “Thank you for bringing this to our attention, this does not reflect the specification of one of our hampers. Please can you DM us the details of the school that your child attends and we will investigate immediately.”

Footballer Marcus Rashford, who has been instrumental in securing free school meals for children who need it most after resistance from the Government has now weighed in on the argument, as has the Labour Deputy Leader Andela Rayner.

Sharing a picture of another hamper which had been given to another family he said: “3 days of food for 1 family...Just not good enough.”

"Then imagine we expect the children to engage in learning from home. Not to mention the parents who, at times, have to teach them who probably haven’t eaten at all so their children can... We MUST do better. This is 2021".

The Department for Education has said it is investigating images on social media purporting to show 'free school meals' sent to families during lockdown.