A MUM has blasted a free school meal box packed with food her 10-year-old daughter is allergic to – along with mouldy onions.
Sasha Peggs hit out after her coeliac and dairy intolerant little girl Mila was delivered cheese, cow's milk, pasta and pita bread, as well as the rotting onions.
Sasha, 49, said she fears carelessness when it comes to packing up the boxes could cost lives.
She said: “I'm not worried about having more food. I just don't want them to accidentally kill someone.
"You can get anaphylaxis from cow's milk. People don't realise that, and that's what makes me quite angry.
"And blimey – it takes an onion forever to get like that. It must have got wet."
Sasha only realised she qualified for free school meals recently, when she struggled to make profits from her beauty business after it closed during lockdown.
And when schools closed for the Easter holidays, she requested meals for Mila from company Pink Orange.
But as soon as the box arrived to their home in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, Sasha spotted butter and cheese inside.
“When the delivery lady got back to the van, I said ‘Oh, it must be a mistake, because you've given us this and we need gluten and dairy free'," she said.
“And she sort of said ‘Oh, the rest of the box is just tins’ and she wasn't that bothered.
“So I opened it and then inside was pasta, pitta bread, and UHT cow's milk – all foods that could make Mila extremely unwell."
Sasha sent photos of the unsuitable food to her son Adam, who tweeted: “From my little sister's free school meals hamper for Easter.
“They’ve also sent her food she’s allergic to, so there’s a total of six items she can’t have at all. Appalling.”
Before the box was sent out, Sasha had filled in a form of Mila's dietary requirements and allergies.
But when she complained to Pink Orange, it took four days for the company to hand-deliver another box as a result of the Easter weekend.
During term-time, staff at the youngster's school prepare gluten and dairy-free meals for her.
A spokesperson for Pink Orange said: “This truly was an isolated miss-picked incident which we have taken very seriously and rectified wholeheartedly the next business day, to ensure provision was swiftly met for the child in question.”
Footballer Marcus Rashford sparked a Government review of free school meals this year after he shared photos from mums and dads who revealed meagre meal replacements for their hungry children.
Frantic parents shared pictures of potatoes and cans of beans, a loaf of bread and a block of cheese or boxes of cold chips after expecting enough food for a week's worth of lunches.
Rashford has also twice forced the Government into a U-turn over feeding the nation's most vulnerable kids when schools were closed by lockdowns.
After pictures of "scandalously inadequate" meals supplied by company Chartwells hit social media, Boris Johnson chatted to the footballer and announced an investigation.
During Prime Minister's Questions, Mr Johnson said: "I don't think anybody is happy with the disgraceful images that we've seen the food parcels that have been offered, they are appalling and they are an insult to families."
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