school lunch rip off

PolishBigSpender

Money_maker wrote: »

The school dinner contract for our area was put out to tender with several companies bidding on it. They had to show to be providing fresh, cooked meals using raw materials and covering all the necessary food groups.

If my knowledge of tenders is right, the tender will usually go to the company that can best cover up their deceitful practices.

woozywendy

In my daughters school they don't have a choice of hot dinners it is one main course only. They do have a salad bar and a choice of pudding, usually the main pudding or a piece of fruit. My 2 daughters take packed lunch instead and they have a hot food flask which they both love. I got them at www.kiddieskitchen.co.uk, they keep the food hotter for longer and are designed for children.

Swishter

From reading this it sounds pretty horrendous. I especially feel for the children who come from homes where the school meal is likely to be the only decent meal they get all day.

It would be interesting to see what the powers that be think of my lunch. I make up a bento box which often includes things like spring rolls, onion bhajis, felafels, pizza slices and cakes. But everything is HM (I freeze to save time) and bake, I never fry. I know what goes in and cut sugar and fat, use wholemeal flour, extra fruit and veg etc. I get loads of veg and have lost weight and don't get an afternoon slump. But an onlooker could view my healthy meal as junk.

On another note do not slag teachers off, yes some are rubbish, it happens in every profession. But when you have problems with parents fighting in the playground and telling their kids to hit another, verbal abuse to the teachers and both threats and actual violence, you wonder why anyone bothers to do the job at all. They are a vital profession and are underpaid and !!!! on.

anonymousie

DD2 is only 9 but tall and active- she has some school meals and occ pack lunch.

Costs £1.70 for a main/desert and if you have the "basic" choice you get a drink as well (usually the sandwich option).

It is just about worth the money but the portions are teeny. Salad bar is "unlimited" but I believe things are said like "don't take ALL the cucumber" etc- DD2s idea of a cucumber portion is 1/4 to munch!

My DS when he was at primary school, developed a strategy- he isn't fussy so would choose the unpopular "non portioned option". Smile at the cooks and say "that looks lovely" whilst being later on in the queue, and he'd get a huge dollop of what ever pasta bake/potato topped gloop because they knew few others were choosing it and it would go to waste otherwise!

AS well as a school lunch DD2 takes fruit for break and after school!

I'm not sure if it a budget/waste control thing to give teeny portions, or if it supposed to help obesity in kids but if they gave good portions of quality food then we'd be more onto a winner surely!

squirrelchops

My Mum was a school cook for years...she has been retired 10 years now i hasten to add. Anyway i went to see their school meals one day for a project i was doing for my catering diploma.

They had a really small budget per person per day yet managed some great healthy but filing food and a proper pudding too. Mmmmmm jam sponge and custard!!! (we used to get the leftovers brought home too!)

skintsaver_2

My dd is due to start school in september and i have been told now that if she does not eat the school dinners i will have to bring her home for dinner everyday, they are not allowed packed lunch

Calvinandhobbs

My child's school dinners are atrocious too, it is about £1.70 a day I think, She's starting a public school in September, the lunch bill for the year is about £450, so that will work out less cost, but the food's amazing. She can't believe it, she went for a trial day and just came home and talked about the food. they've got 2 or 3 choices of mains, and a jacket potato bar as well as a salad bar and fresh fruit and juices etc! Not sure if it is sold at cost price or subsidised by the fees, but it is amazing.

It makes me so angry that the schools are allowed to sell such rubbish, at the school she's at now the only healthy choice (if at all) is the veggie meal, but you aren't allowed it unless you're veggie! We do packed lunches instead, but what about the kids with no choice because they are on free dinners (which my child used to be) they just have to put up with it

mama67

Not a rip off in the quality of the food ( I'm the hot dinners server) so I see this daily, but I pay £2.20 for hot lunches at DS2 primary school, this includes having to pay for the transport to have them delivered from approx 40 miles away.

The main problem being at our small village school there is no kitchen in which to cook lunches and no company any closer to provide them.

Everything that is brought in could quite easily be prepared on the premises if we had the facilities; and probably a bit more variety as things aren't given due to them not holding up in transportation.

I alos think having spoken to parents that if the dinners were cooked in house that more children would take them up; alot don't like the idea of food travelling that distance.

The days we have roasts or more traditional casseroles etc are the most popular, with 20/25 children from a school of 70 having the hot dinner.

dieselhead

Well this really is a fascinating thread and I have to say I am shocked, at the small portions that some of these children are having. I can quite clearly remember my lunch box from primary school in the 80's and to be honest it is more than I eat for lunch now, but I was a very slim active child (and am still slim as an adult). In my box there would be a couple of sandwiges on wholemeal bread (tuna/cheese/cheesespread) and a sausage roll, a apple/banana, a yoghurt, a slice of cake, and a bottle of water (my mother never even bought squash). It seems like a lot of food and by today's standards probably seems unhealthy, but I am sure that given my lifestyle, activities most evenings, racing around the playground, and out to play when I got home I burned it all off.

elisamoose

I suggest you have a look at the new guidlines for schools and caterers
https://www.schoolfoodtrust.org.uk/content.asp?ContentId=259

School cooks are very controlled in what and how they can cook. The portion sizes are also controlled.