School Meals v Packed Lunch

mitchb

On a lighter note

Had to look twice at this post from jay - jay

"I send a carton of fresh juice, an apple or carrot sticks, a yoghurt and either a penguin or a chocolate biscuit."

I love penguins but couldnt eat a full one

Mado

mitchb wrote:

On a lighter note

Had to look twice at this post from jay - jay

"I send a carton of fresh juice, an apple or carrot sticks, a yoghurt and either a penguin or a chocolate biscuit."

I love penguins but couldnt eat a full one

And I thought they were a protected specie... shame on Jay-Jay really!!!!!! :rotfl:

Zziggi

wasn't sure whether to put this on the benefits board, families or OS board...

Eldest child is due to start school in sept. He'll be eligible for free school meals. The thing is he eats Halal (we're muslim) and also he has a milk intollerance (& other products but we're still trying to work out exactly which other products it is [wheat etc])

I want him to have school meals because we're eligible for them but am worried about what they'll give him to eat! It'd be fine for him to have vegetarian (to get round the Halal problem) but I'm not sure what they'd do about the milk intollerance/wheat probs.

What do schools do? [BTW if the food is dire, bland or repetative then I'll be giving him a pack up anyway] Is there anyway that if the school can't give him decent stuff to cope with food requirements then i can send him a pack up (and perhaps get an allowance instead fo the free school meals?).

He's my first child to reach school age so I don;t know about this problem, can anyone tell me how schools deal with this please?

margaretclare

Hi Zziggi

Your best bet is to go to the school and talk to someone face-to-face. They're reasonable people! Schools vary a lot. Your son can't be the only one with a milk intolerance/food allergy and I'm certain he won't be the only Muslim!

Best wishes

Aunty Margaret

Zziggi

margaretclare wrote:

Hi Zziggi

Your best bet is to go to the school and talk to someone face-to-face. They're reasonable people! Schools vary a lot. Your son can't be the only one with a milk intolerance/food allergy and I'm certain he won't be the only Muslim!

Best wishes

Aunty Margaret

Thanks Aunty Mararet!
Just wondered what other peoples' experiences were before i asked the school. BTW we live in a very non-multicultural area and the school he is going to is 80 years old and apparently he is going to be the first muslim pupil they've had in their history (don't know how true it is but that's what i got told). I've already been asked to go in when they do RE and study 'other cultures' to bring in clothes, artifacts etc etc (there's nowt like roping parents in at the first opportunity!).

I know in areas like Birmingham/Bradford/areas of London then the school cater for muslim pupils with halal meals, i know that won't happen round here which is why i'm fine about vegetarian meals. But whenever we go out (and therefore choose vegetarian) we struggle to find a veggie dish that doesn't have cheese/milk in it, so i was wondering about the schools.

margaretclare

Hi Zziggi

What you need to do is to specify vegan rather than vegetarian. I'm in the local AnimalAid and we had a fund-raising dinner just before Christmas which was in an Indian restaurant and we all ate strictly vegan. I was amused - even the wine had to be vegan (apparently animal products are sometimes used cleaning out the wine-barrels). There are apparently more and more vegans around, and they don't eat any animal products at all - no cheese, no milk (soya milk instead).

Have a look at their site: https://www.vegansociety.com

I was surprised - it really is quite edible!

Aunty Margaret

oooops, sorry about mentioning the vegan wine - forgot, you're Muslims!

juno

I'm a coeliac, and at 2 schools I had free school meals! Both times, as long as my parents went and explained to them exactly what I could and couldn't eat, they were happy to help. I think they even sent me home with a menu for my parents to approve, but it was a while ago and being young I didn't take much interest.

So I suggest going and having a word with his teacher/head teacher, who can then tell you if you need to do anything special like talk to the chef. Also, make sure your son knows roughly what he can and can't eat, and that he knows that just because he was given it doesn't mean it is safe. I have memories of telling the leaders at playgroup that I couldn't eat cake!

But you are right in saying that the food might be awful. I still have nightmares over that cheese omlette!

Savvy_Sue

The only thing I can say with certainty is that you won't get an allowance if you don't take up the free school meals! However, the schools still, I think, like to know that your child is entitled to them, even if you don't use them.

Also as well as looking at the 'regular' menus, you need to talk to the catering staff about what they will provide in the odd packed lunch if your child is going out for the day with the school. You may decide not to have a school packed lunch provided but to send your own in on those days, even if the meals are reasonable the rest of the time.

And you MAY find that they are serving Halal meat anyway, as I know some authorities started doing this in response to the BSE crisis or some other food scare.

bylromarha

Email your county council...they'll be the ones supplying the school kitchens and approve the menus...the head will only go to them anyway, so it will bypass the face to face chat. I can echo the "school will be happy to help"...they want to do as much as possible to make your little'un as comfortable in school as he can be.

Our school used to do a pack up for 1 boy every day as he had allergies...ate it with his peers in the packed lunch room.

Whatever the outcome, even if you bring packed lunch from home each day...claim the free meals...the higher the percentage of free meals, the more funding the school receives.

Zziggi

Savvy_Sue wrote:

And you MAY find that they are serving Halal meat anyway, as I know some authorities started doing this in response to the BSE crisis or some other food scare.

Have heard that quite a few hospitals and prisons do this so that they are basically catering for everyone as meat-eaters will eat any meat, vegetarians & vegans won;t touch it anyway... so i guess really it's only the Jews who eat Kosher and those who object to the halal slaughter methods who will be unhappy.