school lunch rip off

jayII

Out of interest (assuming you have children), what is the situation in Poland r.e. school meals?

duchy

leiela wrote: »

Yes our school does that, but my kids assure me that thier normal dinners don't resemble the day parents can go in.:mad:

Pity a group of you can't "get the day wrong" and just turn up

Money_maker

Just to add, our kitchens at the school didn't possess a microwave!

PolishBigSpender

jayII wrote: »

Out of interest (assuming you have children), what is the situation in Poland r.e. school meals?

Dreadful, to be honest. Many schools don't have any catering facilities and so a 'packed' lunch is the normal routine. But in Polish culture, we don't have lunch - we have someting like this...

6:30am - breakfast
11am (depends!) - second breakfast
3pm - dinner
evening - light supper

Dinner is the main meal of the day, and is usually eaten by children as soon as they come home from school. It's because working hours were traditionally 7-3 - so the children would come home with the parents and dinner would be served up quickly. People here just don't eat hot lunches - in fact, the concept is rather alien to us. But we do eat proper breakfasts - so it balances out, I think.

But there are no restrictions on what you can give a child. There is a strong feeling (especially after Communism!) that the State should not interfere in parental duties - and providing a second breakfast is most certainly a parental duty.

There are a few schools that have catering facilities, but these facilities are often woefully inadequate. But children aren't kept in school - once a child moves into secondary school, it is his/her responsibility to attend a class. They aren't forced to stay in school - because our system can often see a child start and finish school at different times, there's no set start/finish times.

Generally speaking though, there's nothing like school lunches in the UK. I suspect, given the culture of early main meals, many people simply wouldn't use such catering facilities.

leiela

you know most of the problems with school lunches, such as schools running out of hot food etc could be solved by allowing parents/kids to pre-order food.

why can't kids book what they want to eat as morning registration or maybe on a weekly basis's a menu could be sent home on a friday afternoon for the parents to fill in and send back monday morning, ordering the kids food for the week, i dunno something like that.

Allowing kids/parents to order food, would save of wastage and would help the cook know how much to cook before hand, it would also give parents an idea of WHAT thier kids where eating and a certain amount of control over it.

I know as a parent i'd feel better if i know what they were eating and could choose not to allow them to have chips every day, but also that they where getting a decent portion size, spliting up a meal designed for 50 kids bettween 10 kids just because demand is high isn't good enough when half these problems could be simply solved.

Also i bet you any money pre-ordering food would make the cooks life alot simpler too.

jayII

leiela wrote: »

you know most of the problems with school lunches, such as schools running out of hot food etc could be solved by allowing parents/kids to pre-order food.

why can't kids book what they want to eat as morning registration or maybe on a weekly basis's a menu could be sent home on a friday afternoon for the parents to fill in and send back monday morning, ordering the kids food for the week, i dunno something like that.

Allowing kids/parents to order food, would save of wastage and would help the cook know how much to cook before hand, it would also give parents an idea of WHAT thier kids where eating and a certain amount of control over it.

I know as a parent i'd feel better if i know what they were eating and could choose not to allow them to have chips every day, but also that they where getting a decent portion size, spliting up a meal designed for 50 kids bettween 10 kids just because demand is high isn't good enough when half these problems could be simply solved.

Also i bet you any money pre-ordering food would make the cooks life alot simpler too.

Or they could just stop cooking foods that children don't like, or offer simple, easily replenished, alternatives--like wraps and pitta breads (can be frozen), plus cheese, ham, and other simple fillings for the fussier children. I really don't see why it's so complicated, or why it has to be a 'hot' lunch, children have individual tastes. How many of us adults prefer to grab a sandwich or similar at lunchtime? I certainly do.

I'm so glad I've never been drawn into the 'school lunch' battle, thankfully my children have always been happy with a simple, healthy, packed lunch, and a hot meal in the evening.

tinkerbell84

seven-day-weekend wrote: »

As for the contents of the lunch boxes, I don't see as that is the school's business .

I think it is when the little 'darlings' can't concentrate/behave in class due to all the crap they're eating!

deanos

Our school have a word with the parents if its just junk in the school pack lunch

tinkerbell84

why the assumption on this thread that homemade (cakes/biscuits etc) = healthy??

just wondering

jayII

tinkerbell84 wrote: »

why the assumption on this thread that homemade (cakes/biscuits etc) = healthy??

just wondering

I think it's because they don't have all the additives, colourants, etc. in. Not healthy per se, but the assumption that generally, if people make the effort to bake, then they're more likely put some thought into the rest of the lunchbox.

I know that if I compare the 'ingredients list' of many shop-bought cakes etc. with that of home made ones, the difference (lack of junk in h/m ones), is astounding.