school lunch rip off

seven-day-weekend

Please all you who are thinking of giving the children sandwiches, when I was a dinner lady in a secondary school, a great many of the children threw away the contents of their lunch boxes and either ordered pizza and chips from the school dinners or went to the chippie.

Very few wanted salad.

Aspiring

seven-day-weekend wrote: »

Please all you who are thinking of giving the children sandwiches, when I was a dinner lady in a secondary school, a great many of the children threw away the contents of their lunch boxes and either ordered pizza and chips from the school dinners or went to the chippie.

Very few wanted salad.

Good point, but I send my secondary school children with sandwiches and no money :rotfl: It's a case of eat it or starve Mind you, they are not fussy eaters anyway and enjoy a good salad (in hot weather).

aitch-aitch

minimacka wrote: »

My ds is now at senior school and takes £2 ish a day for his meals is say ish because the school has implimented a finger print system where you put money into his account and each day his lunch is deducted from his account using his finger print to recognise him. I dont like this system because to me it doesnt make the children account for the money they have i used to give him £2 a day and he had to add up what his meal cost but now he just gets what he wants. They school put a cap on how much they can spend each day but i thinks its an astonishing £4 a day :eek: .
Anyway getting back to Junior school, my ds is a fussy little thing and also doesnt like bread or pastry and as the school meals were/are awfull he used to take a packed lunch. I used to give him a selection of chicken nuggets with little pot of sauce, cheese strings, plain crusty roll, little sausages, crisps, chopped up fruit, biscuits etc. He did get very fed up of eating that by the end of year 6 but at least he was full for the rest of the day until he had our home cooked meal. So what im trying to say (in a very long winded way) is that fussy eaters can have packed lunches. There is also somewhere a very good list of packed lunch selections, from home made biscuits to tray bakes etc which will work out a lot cheaper in the long run.

MM

Our senior school has similar system but uses cards rather than finger prints and I "top up" her card online. We can request a print out whenever we want which shows what she has bought. Works really well IMO.

It is also up to the parent to set the maximum amount that can be spent each day (not the school) - perhaps you could ask your school if they will do the same? They always have a "meal deal" option which = the free schoo meals allowance - think it's £1.70 in our area and this means she can get a meal (usually pasta with DS), pudding and drink.

bride_on_a_budget

i just spoke to one of the meal time assistants and she said they kids who are packed lunch are not allowed to take anything hot in for lunch in flasks ect due to health and safety!

bride

fraz_babe

I remember when i was at high school we had a card machine which we put money in and when you buy something they slide the card and detuct it from the amount on it. I always had jacket potatoe cheese and beans and a cake to last me all day. That would cost around 2.50 a day. My parents gave me around 15 pounds a week sometimes i would have money left on it which depends if i had bought a drink or not each day. Its clearly over priced in my opinion. Cheese & beans alone were 1.10.

MrsAnnie

Well I am starting to fell ripped off! My DD's school dinners cost £2.20 per day :eek: . Hence I only allow them to have it one day per week! I think ( cross my fingers!!!) that they are getting good sized portions. They seem to enjoy their school dinner day. Meal plans are set four or five weeks in advance so they can choose which day they want.
DD1 does not like bread so I send her with a flask of either ravioli, pasta or leftovers for the other 4 days in the week. Surely that can't been a H&S risk - it is not as if the contents are boiling at lunch time!

tiamai_d

bride_on_a_budget wrote: »

i just spoke to one of the meal time assistants and she said they kids who are packed lunch are not allowed to take anything hot in for lunch in flasks ect due to health and safety!

bride

Oh my god, what a tight git! no hot food unless your willing to pay for our overpriced crap?

tiamai_d

Meant to add, at DS2's school they invite parents along to buy a school meal a few times a year. But that could be the day they get extra staff in...

I know the cakes are good, the dinner lady who makes them makes some for our shop!

leiela

tiamai_d wrote: »

Meant to add, at DS2's school they invite parents along to buy a school meal a few times a year. But that could be the day they get extra staff in...

I know the cakes are good, the dinner lady who makes them makes some for our shop!

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

tiamai_d

seven-day-weekend wrote: »

Please all you who are thinking of giving the children sandwiches, when I was a dinner lady in a secondary school, a great many of the children threw away the contents of their lunch boxes and either ordered pizza and chips from the school dinners or went to the chippie.

Very few wanted salad.

Whereas I was given £2.00 a day for lunch, no packed lunch and 1, I couldn't get a meal for that (a filled roll was £2.00) and 2, I bought fags instead :eek: Was cheaper to buy fags at £2.00 for 10, sell 5 at 50p each (£2.50) and go to the bakers. I lived on bridies and cream cakes, but didn't get fat... how I miss those days!

Not that I endorse kids buying ciggerettes!!!