School Meals v Packed Lunch

Sarahsaver

I identify with the concerns of the op because my kids have been upset several times due to the dinner ladies' comments. Thay told my kids off for having a small fork, knife or spoon, for eating fruit (son cant touch oranges cos of his eczema) knife for spreading cheese on crispbread... They have been blatantly told 'you can't have that' and i have complained. The offending items were a sausage roll, accompanied by fruit and a carrot, and a bottle of water, and crispbreads, cream crackers and cheese with fruit. They have the occasional homemade cake, flapjack or a boiled egg. My son especially was really upset because he knows how important healthy eating is, and he knows his food is healthy. His friends have fizzy drink, crisps, chocolate etc... and my son finds that they are so intrigued with his food he lets them try it. :rolleyes: Its got to the point where i put a letter for the dinner ladies in with my kids food, saying theat whats in their lunch bag is their property, and if something is in their bag its because I have put it there!

In terms of what exactly IS healthy, children need a higher proportion of fat in their diet compared to adults. Fat is essential for healthy brain development. We have cut fat in our diets to the extent we actually take supplements which are basically fatty acids - omega 3 oils, evening primrose and the like. The fat in a chicken leg will be better than the fat in a bag of crisps or a processed cereal bar, as the chicken leg hasnt been hydrogenated/saturated and so on. Kids in wealthy areas, I have heard, have suffered from their parents giving them too much whole grain full fibre fat free food. We all know we have to strike a balance. But these dinner ladies need some educating!

elona

Well said Sarah! Too many people seem to think of children as mini adults - leading to what was called Muesli belt syndrome - where kids were fed very low fat meals and their bodies did not have the essential fats and nutrients that they needed!

I would be very interested to know what the school says when you challenge them!

I had endless problems with our primary - not allowed bottles of drinks ( flavoured Water?)

Allowed fruit juice then not allowed juice!

Not allowed choc - fine - but trouble when given a home made flapjack????


Praying for September when she goes to decent school!!!!!

And I do mean what I say!!!!

mrcow

Hi Becles,

Did you have a word about this this morning? I'm just wondering what the school's reply was?

The reason for me asking is that I was thinking whether the school are trying to promote the '5 a day' idea on fruit and veg, and so that is why your son got one point.

As you rightly point out, it's completely ridiculous to imply to a six year old that eating cheese sandwiches or chicken for lunch as part of a balanced diet is in any way shape or form an unhealthy practice.

I suppose I'm just questioning whether the message has been lost in translation and obviously caused you unnecessary upset. Could it just be that the school are trying to encourage the children to take an interest in the types of food that they are eating? In which case, is it not a positive move? Either way, they need to make their motives and actions much clearer to parents.

I'll hasten to add at this point that my little one is only three, and so will not start primary school until next year, and so my experience of how draconian some schools can be is somewhat limited? (although I always seem to me the one Mum up the nursery making my point heard, so I don't suppose this will change when he starts school :rolleyes: )

You should complain.....trust me, you won't be the only parent to have been bothered about this, and the school needs to hear your feedback.

mrcow

filigree_2

swizzlebabe wrote:

I think that before this lunch box inspection, you should have been told about it. They could have always have had a sneak look before, and if they thought all the kids were eating crap, done something about it, they have no right saying anything to the kids at this stage.They could invole the kids to design a healthy lunchbox-have a comp or something.

That's what my son's school did, it was tackled as part of the curriculum so they learned about healthy eating, made posters etc. They all came home with a letter explaining about the project so parents weren't caught on the hop.

I like the idea of promoting healthy eating but the parents should be informed ahead of time, it's not fair criticising little kids for what Mum puts in the lunchbox.

Re the PTA fayre, I have sold popcorn in the past very successfully. I take the machine with me and pop the corn on the spot, the children are fascinated and queue up to buy it If you do this though, provide heatproof containers ie paper cups because very hot popcorn melts plastic bags (found that out the hard way! :eek: ) We usually sell chunks of watermelon, that's especially popular on really hot days.

Best of all, the school has a wide ethnic mix and parents bring in home cooked food, we get byriani and samosas yum yum yum :drool:

ceegee

It is quite a difficult situation. Naturally, the school wants children to eat heathily, although the double standards issue of school dinners crops up here.
Also, some children do go to school with junk food in their lunchboxes and perhaps these parents and children need educating/help in this respect. But is this the nanny state? Do we feel that parents should be able to feed their children however they please without interference?

When does "help" become "interference".

Unfortunately there is no "one size fits all" policy.

Time to get off me soap box now! :silenced:

mightymo_2

I'm a relief dinner lady at my son's school and yesterday had to cover dinners.
They have started a new sticker scheme whereby if a child eats a piece of fruit, they get a fruit sticker - and if they eat all their dinner (regardless of whether it's got fruit in it or not) they get a smiley face sticker.

The school promoted fruit a couple of weeks ago by holding "fruity Friday", where the kids were encouraged to take in an extra piece of fruit for lunchtime (they get free fruit for break).

I think they have done this because there were a lot of children in the school whose packed lunches consisted of one bag of crisps and two chocolate bars :eek: .

Sarahsaver

People should NOT be able to send their kids to school with too much junk - diet affects behaviour. I worked in a very large secondary school, which served those little bottles of fizzy pop at lunchtimes. One lad who washed his lunch down with one of those actually projectile vomited over my classroom :rolleyes: Staff lobbied for a change in what was offered, then after the change to bottled water the kids' behaviour in afternoons changed dramatically. This was in the 90s probably before jamie oliver started shaving

Also if people have too much choice they tend (human nature) to make bad choices!

The school my kids are at have a healthy eating week every year, where the kids have to pick the ingredients for a healthy meal, even the 3 year olds take part. All the kids in school kept a food diary for a week, my son won the prize for healthiest food diary so he won a huge bowl of fruit! Trouble is getting it through to parents - and dinnerladies :rolleyes:

jellyhead

i'm sure the dinner ladies know that they're serving rubbish, and know what should be in a lunch box - they're just following the scheme as set out by the headmaster i'd imagine. it's possible that your son only got one point because there was 1 portion of fruit/veg, maybe that's what they were concentrating on - but if that's the case you should have been told, your son should have been made aware that he got one point for one portion of fruit - not made to feel that his lunch was wrong or inadequate in some way. i don't understand why they've implemented any scheme without informing parents though, it's mad - poor kids!

Becles

I sent my letter in as I'm usually rushing off to work in a morning so no time to speak to anyone. The 'official' response from the school is the head told my eldest "tell your Mam it's ok, we know you eat healthily".

We made a big effort this morning and my youngest took:
2 slices of wholemeal bread with ham and cucumber in
a whole tomato (he didn't want it in the sandwich for some reason!)
a bourbon biscuit
about 4 tbsp fresh fruit salad made with pineapple, melon, kiwi, apple and grapes.
For that he got 2 points

Still none the wiser and he's upset again tonight at the intrusion into his lunchbox.

MATH

You've got me worried now. I'm going as a parent helper on the school trip and will be taking a packed lunch with me. I hope I'm not frisked by the lunch box police.:D

I would go into the school and asked what scoring system they are using and why your child only received one point for what was a well-balanced, healthy lunch box.

I can understand where some posters are coming from suggesting skinning the chiken leg etc but remember this is a CHILD'S lunch not an adult's. Children should not be placed on low-fat diets. Skinning chicken and buying low-fat options in not necessary or advisable it your child is eating a good mix of foods and getting plenty of exercise. They need moderate fat in their diet to develop properly. I'd also keep the kit-kat in and be damned. A balanced diet isn't about slavish, self denial but a sensible fruit 'n' veg based diet with the odd treat IMO