school lunch rip off

zippybungle

My son is 6 and loves his School Dinners. The meals are £1.80 per day. The Beef is organic.
He especially likes the cakes with custard :rolleyes:.
He still has a cooked dinner when he comes home from School, and often tells me that he has had 'spares' (2nds) at School.

Zippy x

lolababy

I think the schools should go back to decent home style food. Sometimes a child can be given too much choice . Maybe thats the problem too many choices leading to poor quality food. One or two meals choice per day may be better then the money could go into decent ingredients.
I remember getting a decent size meal plus pudding and then seconds if wanted.

seven-day-weekend

Agree with lolababy, I think there should be just one main meal (something like cottage pie which is cheap and nourishing) and vegetables/salad, and a vegetarian option (vegetarians get first pick) and a sweet. Then they could have better quality food and larger portions as there would not be so much wastage.

They will eat it if they are hungry enough, it will stop kids being so picky.

And it should be cold food only in lunchboxes, but it should be whatever you want. If some kids come with crisps and chocolate, then how is that the school's responsibility and why should everyone else go without because of it?

suki1964

In my day it was the choice of a hot or cold meal - hot for everyone and veggies made do with the cheese salad

But then I dont think kids were vegetarians in the 70's

notlongnow_2

I have no problems with the choice and quality of my boys school meals. My problem is theres not enough to go around!

Their school recently started having themed days, indian,chinese etc. I asked why they were doing this and was told it wasbasically to drum up custom for school meals. I said there was nothing wrong with the meals but when my son is having salad, half a small jacket potato and gravy(!!) them I am not prepared to pay it! There are 6 sittings at lunchtime. After sitting 3 the children are faced with no protein choice (meat/pie etc) Surely the £1.80 cost is mainly to pay for this main item??

My sons are practically gnawing on each other on the way home as they are so hungry. Needless to say, they have packed lunches.

BIG bug bear of mine...rip off school meals!!

missm29

We recently stopped paying for school dinners, they were 1.90 thought it would be a good idea as my little one is such a fussy eater, i kept asking the school if he was eating and they said he cleared his plate, i find this hard to believe, he would come home starving and would never eat the things he had at school at home, so we have gone back to packed lunches. i hadn't considered the portion sizes, quite often our school has a bring your parent to lunch day but i have never been. His eating habits have improved, i threaten school dinners if he messes about. I do think £1.90 is quite a bit of money.

deanos

We pay £2.10 and i must say the menu is very good, all locally produced produce and locally sourced meat.

My daughter says its lovely.

Heres recent menu's and the website, have a look and tell me what you think >

http://www.thefarmkitchen.com/menu.php

Monday 09 February 2009
mild chicken and vegetable curry
bean and vegetable cottage pie
banana bread

Tuesday 10 February 2009
traditional beef lasagne
soya mince lasagne
chocolate nests with raisins and cherries

Wednesday 11 February 2009
roast chicken with sage and onion stuffing
vegetable hotpot
fruit yoghurt and homemade shortbread

Thursday 12 February 2009
sizzling lincolnshire sausages and mash
sizzling lincolnshire veggie sausages and mash
eve's pudding and custard

Friday 13 February 2009
cheesy tuna pasta bake
vegetable and cheese pizza
fruity oat flapjack

elisebutt65

My youngest loves his school dinners and the new system they have in place to stop food running out. Everyday they wear either a red or green band and this is noted on the register. Green for vegetarian and red for meaty versions - This is the menu they have and I have to say that DS says it is so good now that it's all cooked in house.

They also pre-prepare stuff for the kids tea at after school club and if it's one of his early days - when misses out on tea, I have to literally drag him out!!

And it's only £1.65 for lunches so a good lunch can be had for less! Half the time I only have to do him a sandwich for tea as he's not starving anymore:D

chocaholic110

I teach in a school and the meals are great. Each day there are 3 choices - 2 meat and 1 veggie. Children choose their meals in advance from menus that are sent home and it means our cook makes exactly the right amount, so no waste and no-one missing out on what they wanted.

There is a good selection of veg each day, bread is freely available and dessert is a choice of a hot pud, fruit or yoghurt. Some children return for seconds but this is more in KS2. We also have a fruit trolley that children can help themselves to at breaktimes and after lunch if they're still hungry. A lot of the staff, myself included regularly eat a school lunch, and we pay £1.90. Children pay £1.65.

Your packed lunches might be healthy but, to be honest, a lot of people where I live just send a load of rubbish in packed lunches. One child only ever brings crisps, cakes and chocolate biscuits as his mum says it's all he'll eat. Plus, many parents send so much stuff - more than I could eat - then wonder why they bring stuff home again. We also had to stop letting packed lunch children use the bin as they would just throw most of their lunch away. They now have to take all their packaging and uneaten food home so that parents can see what they've eaten.

bride_on_a_budget

well, as i already had my crb checks done for being a helper at sons school i started today as a mealtime assistant.

I am utterly gob smacked at the lunch time chaos.

1. noted that the 1st 70 odd kids all picked the main meal of lasagna and veg or salad, they were good size portions. then the server started halfing each portion as the meal was popular and their would not be enough for everyone.
by the time the last classes came in the serving was the size of cream cracker, The teachers pushed in front of the remaining children so all that was left were the half spu with a scoop of beans.

2. the puddings are tiny one spoon of custard with a sliver if cake.

3. the bread they got with lunch was value bread and wafer thin same with the butter and squash all supermarket value range.

4. i spotted at least 20 kids with utter crap in their lunch boxes, one kid had choc spread in a roll, choc biscuit, choc mousse, choc animal shapes and sugary drink.

i am shocked at how much goes to waste , more with packed lunches, whole sandwiches, yoghurts and more and thats just the kids.

i dont know if i want to go back and help after half term

bride