School Dinner Ladies

mountainofdebt

Polish....are you a wind up merchant?

I didn't realise that an 'ology' was needed to become a dinner lady.

jellyhead

PolishBigSpender wrote: »

It is incredible that the "dinner ladies" are so poorly qualified that they have to have a blanket policy in place to substitute for the lack of skills and qualifications. A chocolate bar is one thing, but anyone capable of including an obviously home baked cake will have an idea or two about nutrition.

It is also incredible that schools see fit to interfere to begin with, while serving up an incredible amount of rubbish themselves.

What if the cake has been made from a packet mix? The cheaper ones seem to be made of dust and palm oil

Also, if the school has a nut ban there might be ground almond in a cake.

shirlgirl2004

PolishBigSpender wrote: »

It is incredible that the "dinner ladies" are so poorly qualified that they have to have a blanket policy in place to substitute for the lack of skills and qualifications. A chocolate bar is one thing, but anyone capable of including an obviously home baked cake will have an idea or two about nutrition.

It is also incredible that schools see fit to interfere to begin with, while serving up an incredible amount of rubbish themselves.

Now you are showing a distinct lack of nutritional knowledge. The human body is not designed to process refined sugar and the majority of homemade cakes will be made using refined sugar. That is ignoring the fats. You can by chocolate that is healthy and nutritious with lots of vitamins because it has not been heated during production. It just isn't as simple as saying chocolate is bad and homemade cakes are good and you have just proved it.

jellyhead

My MIL makes cakes using Splenda

shirlgirl2004

jellyhead wrote: »

My MIL makes cakes using Splenda

See it gets worse!:rotfl:Obviously Polishbigspender would be able to tell by looking.;)

jellyhead

Whether dinner ladies have qualifications or not there's a high turnaround and they just don't have time to make in-depth analysis of each lunchbox. This doesn't make them evil. But they shouldn't shout.

I'd suggest that OP's friend looks at the menus in advance and only sends the child to have a school meal on a day where there is something she will eat, and on the others day they could follow the school's guidelines for lunchboxes. It's not the end of the world if a treat is confiscated as long as the child has had the rest of their lunch.

I would be irked if my son had his little treat removed from his lunchbox though, I have to say. But that's because of the double standards where they serve unhealthy puddings with the school meals. They could always change schools if the child is a picky eater and it's that important. I would, because mine are both picky eaters with poor fine motor skills, and what I provide at lunch is enough to stave off hunger but also allow them to go outside and play. Eldest shakes so much it would take him forever to peel an orange or to cut up a proper school dinner. If his lunch is lacking I make up for it in other meals.

msb5262

jellyhead wrote: »

I'd suggest that OP's friend looks at the menus in advance and only sends the child to have a school meal on a day where there is something she will eat, and on the others day they could follow the school's guidelines for lunchboxes.

At the risk of stating the obvious, most schools don't have the flexibility to allow children to opt in and out of school meals on a day to day basis...

OrkneyStar

Today DS (5) has:
1. a ham roll (white roll),
2. sliced tomato (seeds removed)
3. pineapple yoghurt.
4. couple of cheddars.
5. teeny weeny piece of Daddy's birthday cake from yesterday- this is a treat, would not normally have cake and would have a piece of fruit.

Today he has his apple for break time and also something else I forgot lol!

He never has crisps at school, perhaps the equivalent of a small bag or so over a week, if that. He doesn't tend to take sweets to school either except rarely, he has them at home though, sometimes.

pigpen wrote: »

ALL the children are 'allowed' to go home for lunch.. they are your children still between 9am and 3pm and you can take them home for lunch if you wish.. I'd like to see someone tell me I couldn't bring my children home for lunch.

I have not asked but when all the other children stay I think I would be taking DS away from his time with friends to bring him home for lunch (despite living 5 mins from school). I went home most days as a child and often asked to stay, just so I could spend lunchtime with friends.

jellyhead

msb5262 wrote: »

At the risk of stating the obvious, most schools don't have the flexibility to allow children to opt in and out of school meals on a day to day basis...

Oh, okay. Ours does. There are around 450 kids at our primary, if that makes a difference.

cyclingyorkie

jellyhead wrote: »

Oh, okay. Ours does. There are around 450 kids at our primary, if that makes a difference.

So does ours - about 200 kids!

Ironically I am just off to work - as an MSA - so I will reply in depth later!