school dinners

Mrs_Optimist

My DD and DS have school dinners one day a week (Wednesday) when a roast is served. It is £1.65 each per day so I cannot afford to let them both have school meals every day (although it would be nice not to have to make PL every day !). However I have found that when I pick them up from school after they have had school dinner they are always ravenous. Cannot claim school meals because I earn £600 too much each year! I wouldn't mind but that isnt extra cash in my pocket, I have to pay cash and National Insurance as well on that Oh well, maybe one day I will win the lottery.....

Janepig

DD has school meals every day (£8 per week) - at her school the nursery children have to have the hot dinners, they're not allowed to take a packed lunch. Luckily MIL is the cook so we get the inside info. As we live in Wales the school dinners in our local authority have been getting healthier for a few years prior to JO and another new menu has come out this term. They have chips once a week, a roast dinner once a week and then things like curry, fish, chicken portions, spag bol, etc...

DD is eating very well there but as they have food at about 11.30ish in the nursery she is a bit peckish when she gets home and will have an apple or something. Couldn't be doing with having to prepare a packed lunch in the morning with all the other stuff I need to do!!!

Jxxx

sarymclary

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

Hi,

qualifying benefits for free school meals are: Income Support, Income Based Jobseekers Allowance or Child Tax Credit, but NOT Working Tax Credit, and your annual taxable income is less than £13,480. Your entitlement is reviewed annually.

Since you state you work, I doubt very much that you are entitled.

If you are trying to cut costs with the pack-ups, I'd recommend you avoid the pre-packaged products aimed at kid's packed lunches, because they're not only expensive, but lacking in nutrients. I have to prepare packed lunches for my 2 youngest children, and I do it on a budget. I'd make their sandwich as tasty as you can, like tuna and cucumber, ham and tomato - you get the idea, as there's no point it being so bland most of it comes back home in the bag later on. One of my boys doesn't like many fillings in his sandwiches, so I give him marmite or a low sugar/high fruit jam, as I'd rather he ate it and enjoyed it.

I do a pot of strawberries (include a small fork to eat the stawberries), satsuma, grapes, or cucumber to help get in one of their 5 a day portions, I put a frozen fromage frais in the bag to keep everything cool (it's melted, but still cold by lunchtime), a mixed fruit/nut bar, or a homemade cake/flapjack. Nutrigrain bars are OK as they are higher in fibre with complex carbs to keep them full up for longer, but have 3.5grams of fat. I do relent with a packet of crisps, but on the whole, these aren't so bad, if you're limiting their salt intake elsewhere, which I do, but rice cakes are a good alternative. I don't include chocolate biscuit bars, as they're packed with sugar, hidden transfats, and most schools would prefer they weren't included. I include a large bottle of juice too.

Sorry if I'm 'telling you how to suck eggs', but for years I fell into the trap of putting mini-rolls, penguin biscuits, cheese strings, babybel, juice cartons, chocolate mousses, etc. It takes no more effort to make it healthier, and actually costs me less, even with strawberries costing £2 a punnet out of season.

I know this went off the subject a bit, but hope it helped a bit!