School lunch rant - Would you complain?

clairehi

OP Id be delighted if my veg-refusing monsters would eat a lunch like your DD, you have done a great job in getting her to eat such a good diet. Hope it is all resolved, it sounds like that TA deserved and got a good kick up the ***.
On the hot dinners issue - I cant believe the school would offer the same dinner twice in one week let alone more than that. In our LEA (Herts) all primary schools have a 3 week rotating menu including veggie option, I dont think anything is ,certainly not more than once, within 3 weeks.

alanalea

msb5262 wrote: »

Lots of discussion of how many options etc in school dinners...my school has just introduced a fab new system for school meals.
4 options each day, the week's menu is displayed from the previous Friday and each child chooses what he/she would like at register time and is given a sticker with the appropriate colour.
Usually there are two hot dishes - one meat and one vegetarian.
Almost every day, sandwiches are available as one of the choices and the children pick a filling (from cheese, egg, tuna or meat) and this is specified on the sticker.
Each class sends a list to the kitchen and the cook prepares exactly what is needed.
As children can see the whole week's menu, they can opt into school meals when they know something they like is coming up.
If there isn't a main dish they particularly like but they have a school meal every day, there is always the fallback option of a sandwich.
Working well so far!
MsB

Our school does the same, 2 hot dishes either meat or veggie. They do not do sandwiches, but they offer a salad cart with 6 choices & breads.
The menus are sent out before the start of term & they're on a 3 week rotation- so the children can see what they're getting beforehand.
This is our current menu:

shellsuit

I'm just looking at the desserts on that menu, and I can't believe that a school has the bloody cheek to remove a biscuit/slice of cake etc from kid's school lunch boxes because they aren't healthy.

Cheeky effin £$%*^$%!!!

alanalea

I must admit the only thing my school says is a no-no are chocolate bars, fizzy drinks and peanut/nut based foods due to a little girl with severe allergies.

Jandy1234

Just to say, I work in a pre-school. We do try to encourage parents to send in healthy lunches. My point of view is the parents pay me to look after their child, if they gave no decent food to feed them and I said nothing and did nothing, I would be failing them and the child ( not to mention being a cruel person).

We have had lunchboxes with only sweets in them, lunch boxes with mouldy food ( surprisingly often), lunch boxes with just a Dairylea dunker and a fizzy drink ( "but its all he will eat" whines mum) , lunches where every item is artificial food, lunches of a single carrot ( unwashed and whole and the size of a pencil case),or a handful of breakfast cereal in a tub and even lunch boxes with nothing but thin air inside them.

I know its often a rush in the morning etc ( I have three kids of my own,) but the children are so upset when they are still hungry or left eating rubbish next to someone else with goodies that it hurts everyone present to see it. If some of these mums saw how it affects their little ones they would be ashamed, quite frankly. We aren't allowed to make them something else ( imagine the fuss!) And for the record, we are in one of the most affluent neighbourhoods in the country - its not caused by poverty or bad health education, it is simple failure to prioritise the things that matter ie, the child's welfare over the things that matter less - using the hair straighteners, having a few more minutes in bed, vegging out in front of the tv the night before or just plain not bothering to plan what you will put in the lunchboxes each week.

Regarding the child who was given a school dinner - lunch hour at a school is chaotic, and children are rushed through, because they have to be. There are so many of them and they need to be finished for the next lot to have lunch and go back to class on time. If the staff who supervise lunch are saying that the child has too much to eat in the time she is allowed, it may be that she is seeming anxious about eating it fast enough to keep up with her friends. They may actually be alerting you to her distress so that you can decide how best to deal with it. If someone felt compelled to give the child a cooked meal, it could be she still seemed hungry after her food was eaten and someone had a soft heart... You are all very keen to assume the TA has negative ideas about the childs diet...

I thought the mum who moaned about yog pots and banana skins in lunch bags was quite funny. How do you suppose these items are disposed of by a lunch lady who comes in only to sit in a hut with kids while they eat? Is she supposed to drag her wheely bin everywhere she goes? Or rather her slops bin, foil bin, rubbish bin, paper bin etc. If you turn your nose up at buying a washable plastic box for the lunch items, don't pack things that turn to mush when eaten... or teach your child to clear up after themselves and wrap leftovers in foil etc for you.

Childcare ratios are lower than people realise, when there are 4 of us trying to eat our own lunch and help 21 toddlers open all the cheese strings, yoghurts, fruit bars etc and cutting the doorstep sandwiches into a size they can eat, and getting them to sit down and stop running around and trying to persuade them to eat anything other than their chocolate bar and cake and helping them with spilt drinks and trips to the loo, how do you imagine we have time to spring clean their lunch bag for you as well? We would happily help if we could, but some mums seem to have little or no idea of the pressures on the time available.

Sorry to grumble, but it might help some of the people posting on this to consider how their criticism feels coming from the other side. Nobody want to make a parent feel abused about their choices for their child but dealing with children who are complaining of hunger after a lunch that didn't fill them, or stopping kids feeling hard done by when the one next to them is fed on doughnuts and haribos while they have boring old actual FOOD to eat is cruel for both the child and the carer. They call us carers for a reason, you know.

brightonman123

remember to take some dumb bells..

Spendless

shellsuit wrote: »

I'm just looking at the desserts on that menu, and I can't believe that a school has the bloody cheek to remove a biscuit/slice of cake etc from kid's school lunch boxes because they aren't healthy.

Cheeky effin £$%*^$%!!!

The criteria set in my area, is that the majority of school dinner puddings have to have fruit within them. Looking at the meal planner provided it looks like it's the same there. That might be why some areas are taking away something from the packed lunch, if a portion of fruit is not provided as well.
(me guessing here)

shellsuit

Jandy1234 wrote: »

Just to say, I work in a pre-school.So not school age children then, basically a nursery? We do try to encourage parents to send in healthy lunches. My point of view is the parents pay me to look after their child, if they gave no decent food to feed them and I said nothing and did nothing, I would be failing them and the child ( not to mention being a cruel person). They pay you, there is the crux of the matter ~ if the child's lunch is acceptable for the person paying you, grit your teeth and get on with it.

We have had lunchboxes with only sweets in them, lunch boxes with mouldy food ( surprisingly often), lunch boxes with just a Dairylea dunker and a fizzy drink ( "but its all he will eat" whines mum) , lunches where every item is artificial food, lunches of a single carrot ( unwashed and whole and the size of a pencil case),or a handful of breakfast cereal in a tub and even lunch boxes with nothing but thin air inside them.

I know its often a rush in the morning etc ( I have three kids of my own,) but the children are so upset when they are still hungry or left eating rubbish next to someone else with goodies that it hurts everyone present to see it. If some of these mums saw how it affects their little ones they would be ashamed, quite frankly. We aren't allowed to make them something else ( imagine the fuss!) And for the record, we are in one of the most affluent neighbourhoods in the country - its not caused by poverty or bad health education, it is simple failure to prioritise the things that matter ie, the child's welfare over the things that matter less - using the hair straighteners, having a few more minutes in bed, vegging out in front of the tv the night before or just plain not bothering to plan what you will put in the lunchboxes each week.

Regarding the child who was given a school dinner - lunch hour at a school is chaotic, and children are rushed through, because they have to be. There are so many of them and they need to be finished for the next lot to have lunch and go back to class on time. If the staff who supervise lunch are saying that the child has too much to eat in the time she is allowed, it may be that she is seeming anxious about eating it fast enough to keep up with her friends. They may actually be alerting you to her distress so that you can decide how best to deal with it. If someone felt compelled to give the child a cooked meal, it could be she still seemed hungry after her food was eaten and someone had a soft heart... You are all very keen to assume the TA has negative ideas about the childs diet...

I thought the mum who moaned about yog pots and banana skins in lunch bags was quite funny. How do you suppose these items are disposed of by a lunch lady who comes in only to sit in a hut with kids while they eat? In a bin!! Is she supposed to drag her wheely bin everywhere she goes? Or rather her slops bin, foil bin, rubbish bin, paper bin etc. If you turn your nose up at buying a washable plastic box for the lunch items, don't pack things that turn to mush when eaten... or teach your child to clear up after themselves and wrap leftovers in foil etc for you. Where do you put your rubbish from your lunch? Do you take it home or bin it?

Childcare ratios are lower than people realise, when there are 4 of us trying to eat our own lunch and help 21 toddlers open all the cheese strings, yoghurts, fruit bars etc and cutting the doorstep sandwiches into a size they can eat, and getting them to sit down and stop running around and trying to persuade them to eat anything other than their chocolate bar and cake and helping them with spilt drinks and trips to the loo, how do you imagine we have time to spring clean their lunch bag for you as well?Spring clean? Tipping a box upside down into a bin isn't exactly hard work is it? We would happily help if we could, but some mums seem to have little or no idea of the pressures on the time available.

Sorry to grumble, but it might help some of the people posting on this to consider how their criticism feels coming from the other side. Nobody want to make a parent feel abused about their choices for their child but dealing with children who are complaining of hunger after a lunch that didn't fill them, or stopping kids feeling hard done by when the one next to them is fed on doughnuts and haribos while they have boring old actual FOOD to eat is cruel for both the child and the carer. They call us carers for a reason, you know.

I understand where you are coming from, but you haven't commented on the OP.

Do you think the school was justified in what they did and have said now after the event, or do you back them and because they kids are on their care, the parents should dance to the school's tune?

MrsE_2

Jandy1234 wrote: »

Just to say, I work in a pre-school. We do try to encourage parents to send in healthy lunches. My point of view is the parents pay me to look after their child, if they gave no decent food to feed them and I said nothing and did nothing, I would be failing them and the child ( not to mention being a cruel person).

We have had lunchboxes with only sweets in them, lunch boxes with mouldy food ( surprisingly often), lunch boxes with just a Dairylea dunker and a fizzy drink ( "but its all he will eat" whines mum) , lunches where every item is artificial food, lunches of a single carrot ( unwashed and whole and the size of a pencil case),or a handful of breakfast cereal in a tub and even lunch boxes with nothing but thin air inside them.
.

But that is not what the OP has done. You are talking about neglect above. You can't compare that with the ignorance of a lunch assistant who assumed home made hummous was a plastic cheese dip.

thorsoak

shellsuit wrote: »

I'm just looking at the desserts on that menu, and I can't believe that a school has the bloody cheek to remove a biscuit/slice of cake etc from kid's school lunch boxes because they aren't healthy.......

Whatever happened to Gypsy Tart??? :rotfl:

For those of you too young to know ..... see http://greedydave.com/gypsy_tart_and_school_dinners