Buying stuff in supermarkets for packed lunches

Edwardia

According to BBC, Henry Dimbleby of Leon who has been reviewing food in schools has persuaded the govt to introduce compulsory cookery lessons in schools up to age 14, from 2014 :T

The not so good news is that packed lunches in schools may be banned, with kid having to have school meals.

Only 40% of kids eat school food and as the school doesn't get the dosh it's then difficult to produce good quality food.

The theory is that if all kids are eating school food, there will be more money to buy better food and more incentive to provide it - personally I'm not convinced that a captive market provides incentive. It seems more likely to be lump it or leave it. I think kids would (as I did) just go without on liver and onion days

People on benefits have always been eligible for free school meals but many parents choose to fork out for packed lunches instead.

There are issues besides kids being fussy eaters.

What happens for kids eating halal, kosher, gluten free, dairy free or coelic diets ? Kids with diabetes or IBS ? Kids on diets because they are overweight ?

Will supermarkets protest because no packed lunches in schools would make a small dent in their profits ?

Would kids with dietary probs/religious aderences have to get letter from doctor/Imam/Rabbi ? Would doctors/religious leaders charge ?

Would you save money, not forking out for packed lunches and getting free lunches ? Would you find it more expensive if you had to pay for school lunches ?

1.5bn a year is spent on packed lunches right now ! 25% of school leavers are overweight or obese.

CURRENT advice to schools re: packed lunches

http://media.education.gov.uk/assets/files/pdf/s/school%20food%20trust%20-%20a%20guide%20to%20the%20governments%20new%20food-based%20standards%20for%20school%20lunches.pdf

laura1976

My daughter has thankfully finished with school now and is working herself, but i still have an 11 year old son, currently in his final year at primary school. He's a really fussy eater and won't even have a school meal when they do the special Christmas one. I know he wouldn't eat them because he throws half his food away at home even when he likes it, he says the school dinners look horrible so he never wants them. What is the point in me spending £2 per day on food he's not going to eat when his packed lunch probably costs me half of that or less. He takes a sandwich (tuna filler, cheese and pickle if that runs out), carton of apple juice, no other flavour only pure apple, squeezy yogurt, pack of mini choc chip cookies and a banana. This is the same day in day out because if i change anything it gets left and thrown away. I bought a different brand of squeezy yogurt and he didn't like them as they "taste funny". As frustrating as i find him and his ways, at least i know he's eating at school, if he was made to have dinners he won't touch them and will come home starving then expect what would have made up a lunch anyway, so i get to pay twice.

Fire_Fox

Assuming the school dinners are nutritious and they employ some common sense in what they serve, I don't see there is a problem. Jamie Oliver had major teething problems but children did start eating and enjoying his school dinners including the hidden vegetables. Modest amounts of finely chopped liver can easily be hidden in stuff like Bolognese or meat loaf just as well cooked lentils can (my chef ex failed to comment! :rotfl:), I would imagine it would be next to impossible to serve palatable liver and onions to the masses, wouldn't it go dry or tough sitting about?

The reality is many schools already have 'rules' about what can and cannot be included in packed lunches because far too many are poorly balanced or lacking in nutrition. I've seen plenty on MSE claim they are feeding a healthy lunch when it's clear they are supplying two or more sugary/ added fatty 'treats' each and every day. People are simply not realising that breakfast cereals and yoghurts both often contain added sugar so it's super easy to break the maximum 10% daily calories recommendation with seemingly healthy foods.

My sibling and I were super fussy children, despite being raised on mostly home cooked food, much of which came from our garden and allotment (including chickens and rabbits). Looking back an adult I'm glad we were not pandered to: both my sibling and I cook from scratch, know what a balanced meal is supposed to contain, can recognise a decent variety of plant and animal wholefoods, aren't horrified by the idea of something brown/ wholegrain, will happily eat food from different cultures, don't eat dessert routinely, are a healthy weight.

Neither of us are big on junk food or one portion snacky foods (even so much as dairy or sliced meats) I don't think it even occurs to us to buy them in any quantity because we had so little in our formative years. I appreciate things have changed and there is far more available, but even then we had far far less sweets, crisps, biscuits, chocolate than most. And yes, BTW, both my parents worked including some overtime/ taking work home.

Schools will have to cater to different needs as far as health and religion, I would expect that to include dispensation for, say, autistic children who absolutely cannot cope with an ever changing menu. The area I live in now is very multi cultural and many businesses only serve Halal meat even if they are not run by or mainly patronised by Muslims. Also plenty of schools are nut free where there is a child with anaphylaxis.

It's not beyond the whit of man to design menus with two or three options covering multiple bases - for example vegetarian or vegan is often chosen by stricter Muslims. Many people who are wheat or dairy free due to intolerance are fine with a speck in their food, kids with diagnosed allergies severe enough to avoid completely are relatively uncommon.

mickey8260

My son currently has packed lunches which are checked to make sure they are healthy, however when the weather turned cold I changed him to school dinners, one day he came home saying he had a jacket potatoes and chips, another day he had sweetcorn and peas because they were running out of the main dishes, when I went in to complain I was informed that there was plenty of cake and ice cream for him to fill up on (one of the days he was actually shaking with hunger when I picked him up) when I responded about there being a lack of protein the woman pretty much ran for the hills.

Having returned him back to packed lunches, for his birthday I put a single gold chocolate coin in his lunchbox it was taken off him, I find the whole thing ridiculous!

System

mickey8260 wrote: »

My son currently has packed lunches which are checked to make sure they are healthy

Having returned him back to packed lunches, for his birthday I put a single gold chocolate coin in his lunchbox it was taken off him, I find the whole thing ridiculous!

the school check the pupils lunches to make sure they are healthy? !!!!!!!

Bananabrain

I did a brief stint as a midday supervisory assistant [posh name for dinner lady]
I'd say on average about 50 per cent of what is served ends up in the bin. And that's on a good day.
I was quite frankly appalled at what I saw. Parents are paying good money for rubbish quite frankly. The local council produce glossy pamphlets extoling the virtues of school meals, but in my experience what is advertised and what is actually served bear no relation to one another!
My son had packed lunches:rotfl:
I subsequently learnt that in Italy, the school cooks make fresh pasta every day. From what I saw, the cooks in my son's school lack even the most basic skills.
Next time you are in a supermarket [and I know that might not apply OP] have a little look at what people put in their trollies and you will see that for alot of people in this country, ready meals made of horse are the norm. No wonder we can't get our children to eat 'real' food.

Bananabrain

berbastrike wrote: »

the school check the pupils lunches to make sure they are healthy? !!!!!!!

Oh God, Yeh. Did you not know that? Apparently Mars bars are a no-no but Twix is ok because it's a biscuit. I kid you not.:rotfl:

Tigsteroonie

Bananabrain wrote: »

in my experience what is advertised and what is actually served bear no relation to one another!

That's no different to any fast food 'restaurant' then!! :rotfl:

Own_My_Own

Edwardia wrote: »

According to BBC, Henry Dimbleby of Leon who has been reviewing food in schools has persuaded the govt to introduce compulsory cookery lessons in schools up to age 14, from 2014 :T

I know this is slightly off the main subject, but I am glad my kids are too old for this.

When money is tight there is nothing worse than the dreaded Home Ec shopping list being bought home.

It can cost a fortune, if it is something you don't normally eat at home. Or they need one stick of celery.

Fortunately dds last cookery teacher had some sense. She would send the list home with the option of buying some of the ingredients from the school (you needed to fill the form in the week before). You could buy the pinch of turmeric or the clove of garlic for a couple of pence. I think she had more kids participating after she introduced it.

That's my say, you can carry on about school dinners now.

Fire_Fox

mickey8260 wrote: »

My son currently has packed lunches which are checked to make sure they are healthy, however when the weather turned cold I changed him to school dinners, one day he came home saying he had a jacket potatoes and chips, another day he had sweetcorn and peas because they were running out of the main dishes, when I went in to complain I was informed that there was plenty of cake and ice cream for him to fill up on (one of the days he was actually shaking with hunger when I picked him up) when I responded about there being a lack of protein the woman pretty much ran for the hills.

Sounds like his blood glucose dropped through the floor because they were serving high glycaemic index carbs with a side order of high glycaemic index carbs. Cake and ice cream are hardly going to solve that problem in fact it would likely make it worse, it's lucky I am not a parent at that school I'd have asked which university they studied their nutrition or dietetics degree at. :mad:

Why are they being served chips, cake and ice cream? Clearly they don't know or don't care about the official healthy eating guidelines (imperfect as they are). Would agree it's nonsensical to police lunch boxes when you are dishing up highly processed rubbish complete with added refined sugar and added refined fat.

Edwardia

Bananabrain wrote: »

Oh God, Yeh. Did you not know that? Apparently Mars bars are a no-no but Twix is ok because it's a biscuit. I kid you not.:rotfl:

A horse called No Bombs won by 8 lengths at Ascot in 1979 - but was disqualified because it failed a drugs test, having eaten a Mars bar in the horsebox. :rotfl:

Owl My Own, I did a one day cookery course to keep my mother company in her local community college. There was a price list up so that the kids could buy 50g margarine for 20p for example.

mickey8260 I have type 2 diabetes and agree with Fire Fox, does sound like your son was having a hypo which is really shocking. poor lad must have been feeling really uncomfortable.