school dinners

rls1973

hi everyone

i was wondering what you all think about school dinners these days.

dd want to start having them.

the menu looks great - is the food really as good as on the glossy brochure?

also, is the cost (£1.75 per day) moneysaving or not worth it, in your opinion?

do you find they are full from just a light tea after school if the main meal is school dinners, or are they just as hungry again by that time?!

just wondering all your experiences before i say yes she can have school dinners!!

cheers

naughty_10382

rls1973 wrote:

hi everyone

i was wondering what you all think about school dinners these days.

dd want to start having them.

the menu looks great - is the food really as good as on the glossy brochure?

also, is the cost (£1.75 per day) moneysaving or not worth it, in your opinion?

do you find they are full from just a light tea after school if the main meal is school dinners, or are they just as hungry again by that time?!

just wondering all your experiences before i say yes she can have school dinners!!

cheers

Would it be worth seeing if the school would allow you to let her have 2 days SD, and 3 PL for a couple of weeks?

My school used to let people have PL Mon-Wed, then SD thu and fri (roast day and chips day!!)

tazzababe

My dd started a couple of wks ago and actually asked me for school dinners.

I was given a menu, which looked really good, but them wondered whether it was actually telling the truth. I used to have problems with dd nursery, putting up a menu on the board, but never giving the kids what was on it.
I am gettin dinners free (coz I'm at uni) so for me it is the best option in terms of money. However to be honest, dd has never once complained about the quality, she loves telling me what she had. On the first couple of days she used to come virtually in tears because she wanted to have her tea there it was so good:D
She is never really hungry at tea time, she is quite happy with a spread sandwhich and an apple etc something not too heavy.

I say give it a try. I know that my dd is quite fussy, and if I had decided to give her a packed lunch she would probably take a bite then leave the rest.

Have you thought about talking to some of the other mums there? They might be able to tell you more.

inkie

My DD (7) has now started on SDs - after my resisting her request for several months. TBH - I thought that it would be a waste of cash, and also if she was taking PL then i could control ehat she would be eating. But since the start of term, I have given and she now has SDs - 1.30 per day.

She loves them - and the stuff and the range that they are having (italian, indian as well as traditional) is great, and she doesn't seem as shungry after school. eldest DD still takes PL (her choice), but its a lot easier just doing ine pack on a morning than 2. In theory could get away with her having a non-cooked tea, but older DD needs cooked tea, and so do we, and so stuill cook in the evening.

I would say give it a try - the proof of the pudding is in the eating!

Leigh-Anne_60

DD has just started school (part time for 5 weeks!!). Next week is the first time she will be staying in for lunch and we had the menu home today - It looks great. They only have chips once a week(on fridays) Lasagne, 3 bean chilli, brocolli au gratin, salmon fillet to name a few - I wouldnt mind most of the dishes myself!!

I have booked her in for a couple of weeks when i will see if she is enjoying or if she wants to take a pack lunch. She has had 2 years of packed lunches at nursery so think it will be a pleasant change for her

At £1.45 a day i think it would be around the same price as putting together a packed lunch - Factor in your time spent putting together a PL and i would say school lunches are the better option from a MS view

Cheers

LA

kiansmummy

Anyone know how I can find out if my son is entitled to free school meals as I am a new single parent who works but once childcare , house and bills are paid I am lef with £60-100 a month for food, transport and clothes so if he eats my other son and I wont

rls1973

kians mummy - what about looking on your local or county council website?
or martins article on here about what you're entitled to, sorry i can't remember the name of it.

thanks for the input everyone, i think i will give it a go as she really really wants to , and yes it would be great not to have to do the packed lunches!:p

tazzababe

kiansmummy wrote:

Anyone know how I can find out if my son is entitled to free school meals as I am a new single parent who works but once childcare , house and bills are paid I am lef with £60-100 a month for food, transport and clothes so if he eats my other son and I wont

I was told that if you are claiming working familys tax credit then you cannot get free meals. I don't know if this is different for local councils. I wasn't even told that I was entitled, I had paid the first couple of wks money to the school, and just happened to get a phone call from local council asking about my student loan, I then asked them.

Phone them up, usually if you go into your town hall you can use their internal phone so its free

hilstep2000

Kiansmummy,
If you are claiming Working Tax Credit, you can get free school meals, but if you get Child Tax Credit you don't! How crazy is that?!
At our school (and county) the kids are asked every day "Who's having school dinners?" the Teacher then puts the number down on the register, and our cook then knows how many meals to make. They pay every day seperately, that way they can chose to have PL or SD whenever they want.

wendyl1967

I do not know what area you are from but I am a school cook for Hotpot which is the Lancashire County Council school service.

The menu has got a lot healthier (thanks to Jamie Oliver). As a cook I now have to stick to the advertised menu, I cannot change it unless deliveries fail or other unforeseen circumstances. So what you see displayed on the website is what your child is having.

We have to serve two kinds of veg/salad each day. Also lots more fruit on offer. On offer before we were Jamie Olivered for pudding one day for example we offered large homebaked cookies or an apple. The last few in the queue got an apple!! Now each child gets half an apple and a smaller cookie on that particular day.

A bread basket is put out each day so the children can help themselves so they are usually full when they get home.

No cordial is allowed, only water, milk and fresh apple or orange juice.

Chips are only allowed once a week. The potatoes are McCains Roast, mash, new potatoes and jackets.

It has been nice to see the fussy children whose mothers made them stay on school dinners now accept and even like the new healthy food. Some children have left because they do not like the new menu so numbers have fallen. I always feel good when a child accepts a new vegetable and continues to choose it over the following weeks.

I wish the government would make healthy packed lunches law as well as school dinners because in the school I work at the children can take whatever they want to eat. Some amaze me when they open their lunchbox and I see a lunchable, two chocolate bars, can of coke and a lolly! Some parents do pack a healthy lunch and it is nice to see.

Our head office has put a ban on ordering any product not on the menu. If we try to order it we can't as the suppliers won't let us. So that is good. I always stuck to the menu but the cook at my childrens school used to change it last year and it annoyed me that I was serving the healthy menu and she wasn't. Now she has too.

I am not sure what it is like in the rest of the country.

The council featured in the Jamie Oliver school programme had one of the worst records for unhealthy cheap food. I have never served turkey twizzlers! They were an outside supplier. I actually work for the council so they are not out just to make a profit.

I would try you dd on school dinners. They are filling and healthy. I can vouch for that. Some days my children just have a snack to tea as they have had a cooked meal at lunchtime.

kawan2

rls1973 - My little one had school dinners (SD) when he started school last year. He is having them again this year. The menu looks lovely. On top of that, parents are allowed to try the SD themselves so that they can see for themselves what the little ones are really eating. OH went in one day and said food was really good.We were at a PTA meeting a few days ago. The Headmaster was saying that the council came to inspect the SD. They were so impressed that they asked the school if they would like to supply to other schools! Hope your daughter's SD is good.