Free School Meals – “How to redeem” Help Guide

The delivery of Redemption eCodes from EdenRed to student inboxes is staggered throughout the day. You should receive your Redemption eCode from EdenRed at some point each Monday. The voucher will go to the school email account of the eldest child in your family who attends The Radclyffe School. For details on how your child can access their school email account, click here.

Copy the 16 digit "Redemption eCode" and click on the blue "Redeem your code" button on the email.

When you click the blue "Redeem your code" button on the email you will be sent to the freeschoolmeals.co.uk website and may be placed in a virtual queue. This queue only allows a certain number of people redeem their eCodes at any time. We have seen the queue time last anywhere between 5 minutes and 1 hour. If you are placed in the queue, please try and bear with it if you can. Importantly, do not refresh the page in your web browser as this will result in you losing your "place" in the queue and going to the back of the queue again. If you are unable to wait in the queue, please try again at another time (From our experience it seems to take less time to get access early in the morning, or in the late evening). Please note that you now have FOUR months to redeem your eCode on the website from the date it is received. If it is not redeemed in this time the code is cancelled and the money returned to the Department for Education.

Once you reach the "front" of the queue and are able to enter your 16 digit Redemption eCode you will be taken to a screen which allows you to choose which supermarket you would like to use.

Important: Once you have entered your Redemption eCode into the site, DO NOT press the "Back" button in your browser or close your browser. We have seen some parents lose access to their Redemption eCode by doing this.

If you scroll down, you can choose to redeem the available balance at the available supermarkets. Click the Supermarket you want to use and enter the value of the vouchers you would like to redeem there, then click "Add to basket". Remember, if you shop at multiple supermarkets you can split the balance between more than one if you want.

Once all your available balance has been allocated to your chosen supermarket/s, you can click the "Checkout" button.

On the checkout screen you will be asked to enter your first name, last name, email address (this can be your personal email address if you want), confirm your email address and enter a mobile phone number. Once these details are entered you can click the "Redeem" button. Please be patient on this screen, do not close it or press the "Back" button in your browser as this may cause the transaction to fail and you may lose access to your Redemption eCode.

Once the redemption process has completed successfully you will see a screen which shows an order reference number and the email address the vouchers will be sent to. Please keep a note of these details in case you experience issues receiving your vouchers later. (The easiest way is to take a screenshot of your screen on your device)

Your supermarket voucher will then be sent to the email address you entered on the checkout page. Please note that this can take up to 3 days to arrive in your inbox.

Once it arrives, you can then either take a screenshot of the voucher on your phone (make sure the Bar Code, Card Number and Pin are all clearly visible) or just open the email of the voucher when you get to the supermarket. All the vouchers are able to be spent in-store, some supermarkets allow the vouchers to also be used online. Please view the table at the bottom of this email for details.

If your voucher has not arrived after this time, please email freeschoolmealsparentscarers@edenred.com or call 0333 400 5932. You will need to provide information such as the email address you asked for the voucher to be sent to and your order reference number.

Once your supermarket voucher arrives you will have a set amount of time to spend the voucher. As the voucher is intended for you to buy food for your child to eat now during this period of enforced school closure, we recommend that you use the voucher as soon as possible, but we realise that you may not be shopping every week. Expiry dates for each supermarket are below.

Supermarket               Expiry
Sainsbury’s                    24 months from last transaction
Tesco                              5 years from last transaction
Asda                                24 months from last transaction
Morrisons                      12 months expiry
Waitrose (John Lewis) 24 months from last transaction
M&S food                        24 months from last transaction
Aldi                                  5 years from last transaction

Below is a table that lets you know if you can use the vouchers in-store or online.

Supermarket              In-store                Online
Sainsbury’s                      Yes                       No
Tesco                                Yes                       No
Asda                                  Yes                       Yes
Morrisons                        Yes                       No
Waitrose (John Lewis)   Yes                       Yes
M&S food                        Yes                       No
Aldi                                   Yes                       No