School Meals v Packed Lunch

Dormouse

I'd agree with the previous post, I think the cheese sandwich is healthier. And yes, why not try one of those wholewhite/best of both whites, they look like white but are a bit healthier?

jellyhead

my boy wants to get out to play, plus he has a small appetite and is a slow chewer. recently he's been having a banana instead of a sandwich - school have moaned though, he takes a banana and a box of raisins and they don't think he's eating enough, he really does have the appetite of a bird though, they don't have an afternoon break so all he has is this for lunch and he's never hungry when he comes out of school. i put a humzinger in too and he sometimes eats that for lunch, sometimes on the way home. i love humzingers

sandwiches, hmmm ... he doesn't eat dairy at all so i don't know about cheese or choc spread lol! i would say the cheese sandwich is healthier, and you can get breads that are best of both. my son says white bread's vile, he'd choose brown. if yours would prefer the choc spread would they also eat a cheese cube, or a dairylea triangle/babybel/cheddar stick? if they have yoghurt then the cheese isn't so important.

the bread itself is my sons main gripe about sandwiches - bread takes ages to chew. he hates crusts, hates white bread, hates thick bread. he prefers thin brown bread with the crusts cut off. or milk roll or danish because it's lighter and not as crusty.

but i'm not really in a position to give sandwich advice - i give him jam sandwiches, i'm a bad mother!! i think that's okay, his diet at home is much better, the jam is reduced sugar, doesn't have E numbers etc. either that or dry crackers. although he eats well at home i wouldn't want him to have a sugar high then a slump during afternoon school so he has brown bread, together with the jam i think it's better than white bread would be. he takes a bottle of water, no pop.

endaria

i think cheese on white or choc spread on brown both have their own benefits; i'm guessing the kids won't have cheese on brown! my son has brown all the time now, but he used to only want white. give them choccy spread on brown to encourage them to eat it, then slip some cheese in one day and they probablty will have got used to the brown. or, another thing i've done is have one slice of brown and one slice of white to make a sandwich. don't need to do that now as my son eats the brown no probs, but prefers me to take off the crusts (but i don't anyway). cheese has protein while brown bread ahs fibre and slow release carbohydrates, all of these are necessary. white bread and choc spread turn to simple sugar very quickly in the body, causing imbalances in blood sugars and concentration probs. not that i'm a model mum, i give my son sugar-free squash, fruit, wholemeal sarnies (containing protein - eggs, cheese or ham), yoghurt and a packet of crisps every day. i know the crisps are not too good ...

DevilsAdvocate1

I found the same with my son - he'd eat all the rubbish and leave the healthy stuff. So I cut right back on the amount I gave him. I would just put in 2 fromage frais, 1 sandwich in a medium white bread bun and a piece of fruit. He started complaining that this wasn't filling him so I added something sweet, eg. a chocolate biscuit. The sandwich usually has something like ham or chicken in it and I try to buy good quality meat rather than the wafer thin stuff. I personally think white bread buns are much tastier than brown.

He has recently started complaining again that he's hungry - he is now 7. So I've started adding an extra item. Today it was a bag of Skips. Sometimes I put in a pot of roast chicken (cut from the weekly roast), a croissant or an extra sandwich. I've told him that he won't be getting crisps every day or even every week. He constantly asks for the rubbish that is in his friend's lunchboxes, but I've told him that its important that he is healthy. I did say that I love him so much that I want him to be healthy and free from illness which is why he doesn't get a lunchbox full of sweets.

I have taken him shopping in the past to choose fillings for his lunchbox and this worked quite well. I explained that he could pick some sweets to go in as long as he picked something new to try which was also healthy.

Recently I've started getting him to come into the kitchen once a week to help with the cooking and I've found he seems more willing to try new things if he has a part in cooking them.

In the summer I'm going to experiment with wraps to see if I can introduce some more variety for him.

HTH. D.

Poppy9

Food Standard Agency have some good tips

Eatwell

Personally I avoid 'reduced sugar' drinks as they contain artificial sweeteners and I am not convinced they are safe for children. As I limit sweet drinks I don't see the 'ordinary' sugar as a problem.

Becles

The children on packed lunch are being pestered to go onto school dinners. I don't know the reason why - money? easier for dinnerladies?

Anyway, they came home with a letter today, and have been told that packed lunches are more expensive and less healthy than school dinners.

On reading the letter, the typical example of a packed lunch is:

Dairylea HotDog Lunchable
Dairylea Big Triangle
Frube
Probiotic Drink
Mini Jaffa Cake Pack
Wotsits
Cadburys Fudge

This costs £2.70 and they claim it has 382 more calories, 18.1g more fat and 1.4g more salt than a school dinner. A school dinner costs less at £1.50.

My eldest came out fuming and said it was a load of rubbish, as they never have a lunch box like that. He correctly said the only things on that list I buy are Jaffa Cakes, and that's on rare occasions!

I gave him a job and said it would cost £15 for him and his brother for a weeks school dinners. I sent him to tesco.com and told him to buy enough food for 10 packed lunches during the week. He said they would be happy with lunch of a sandwich, a yoghurt and 2 pieces of fruit, and came up with this:

ingredients for baking 2 loaves - 50p
10 slices of chicken - 78p
10 slices of ham - 78p
250g farmhouse cheddar - 2.55
1kg english apples - 1.49
1kg bananas - 0.64
2 melons - 2.00
12 Ski yoghurts - 1.99

Total 10.73.

Todays school dinner was burger, chips and brocolli, followed by chocolate cake.

He came back and said he'd saved £4.27 on the price of school dinners and thought his menu was more healthy than school dinners.

I'm dead proud of him for working it out for himself, rather than believing the letter from school.

looby75

We got a similar letter to that not long ago Becles, I don't think it's the schools pushing to get rid of packed lunches it's Durham County Council!

I have one child who is on school dinners (he gets them free because I am on IS) and my oldest takes a packed lunch because the kids who eat at the canteen in the school usually end up with about 10 mins to shove their food down by the time they have lined up and been served. She usually takes a sandwich, a yogurt drink or frube and a piece of fruit (she takes a bottle full of water to school every day, so I don't have to worry about pop)

There is NO way that it cost me more for her packed lunches than it would if I gave her dinner money everyday.

As for the example given in the letters, I don't know anyone who sends their kids to school with that amount of rubbish in their lunch box. And I live in a village where a lot of parents ideas of a balanced diet is the same amount of chips as larger! :eek:

edited to say

I had to collect my son from school today at lunch time.

The dinners they were having were a cheese and onion pasty, roast potatoes carrots and green beans. Chocolate cake or yogurt and blackcurrant juice.

Not the most healthy meal either IMO.

Spendless

Becles wrote:

The children on packed lunch are being pestered to go onto school dinners. I don't know the reason why - money? easier for dinnerladies?

Anyway, they came home with a letter today, and have been told that packed lunches are more expensive and less healthy than school dinners.

On reading the letter, the typical example of a packed lunch is:

Dairylea HotDog Lunchable
Dairylea Big Triangle
Frube
Probiotic Drink
Mini Jaffa Cake Pack
Wotsits
Cadburys Fudge

This costs £2.70 and they claim it has 382 more calories, 18.1g more fat and 1.4g more salt than a school dinner. A school dinner costs less at £1.50.

My eldest came out fuming and said it was a load of rubbish, as they never have a lunch box like that. He correctly said the only things on that list I buy are Jaffa Cakes, and that's on rare occasions!

I gave him a job and said it would cost £15 for him and his brother for a weeks school dinners. I sent him to tesco.com and told him to buy enough food for 10 packed lunches during the week. He said they would be happy with lunch of a sandwich, a yoghurt and 2 pieces of fruit, and came up with this:

ingredients for baking 2 loaves - 50p
10 slices of chicken - 78p
10 slices of ham - 78p
250g farmhouse cheddar - 2.55
1kg english apples - 1.49
1kg bananas - 0.64
2 melons - 2.00
12 Ski yoghurts - 1.99

Total 10.73.

Todays school dinner was burger, chips and brocolli, followed by chocolate cake.

He came back and said he'd saved £4.27 on the price of school dinners and thought his menu was more healthy than school dinners.

I'm dead proud of him for working it out for himself, rather than believing the letter from school.

AFAIK The reason why they push school dinners is the lunchtime staff still have to supervise the kids eating their lunch and outside in the playground, abnd of course if you're sending the kids in with packed lunch instead of paying for dinners you are not putting anything into the pot to cover their wages;) .
In my days as a dinner lady sadly there were more packed lunches as described than what you've written you send in. I witnessed kids eating bags of chocolate biscuits (you know the 18 to a bag cholcolate stuff and yes the whole bag), half a slab of the blocks of chocolate that cost over £1 a bar and monster munch that turns your tongue a different colour and I never saw a lunchbox that didn't contain crisps or juice. All this was in a school that had healthy eating status for their dinners and jacket pototoes and salad available every day.
I'm guessing that the letter is aimed at the likes of packed lunches that I used to see and not what you send in so I'd ignore it.

linzibean

I'd always go for packed lunches - then you will always know exactly how much of sugar, fat, salt etc. the kids are eating I think school lunhces in some areas are aimed at kids who maybe wont get a cooked meal in the evening, so get their main meal during the day.

Felicity

Well done to the OP, this seems like an excellent idea and giving your children the control will give them more enthusiam / pride in taking their own lunches in.

I don't have children, but if I did, I would always favour the packed lunch option. It is always likely to be cheaper and healthier.

I really don't understand these parents that say they don't have the time or the budget to cook healthy meals for their children (maybe going a bit off topic here, but I included their evening meal in that). It takes no time at all and you will have happier, healthier children for it.

I make my hubby and I packed lunches everyday, pitta breads crammed with veggies and also fruit and water. Takes about 6 minutes an evening, costs about 60p each. No processed food. You can't really go wrong!