School Dinner Ladies

fluffnutter

jellyhead wrote: »

Maybe, but who puts wotsits or any other crisps into a lunchbox?

Millions and millions of parents unfortunately.

jellyhead

Own_My_Own wrote: »

You would be amazed how many children have crisps everyday.

Yes you are being naive.

okay

I've never been in a school dinner hall, other than when parents get invited to have a school meal with the children.

I couldn't imagine giving mine crisps every day - the very underweight eldest wouldn't eat anything else for the rest of the day because he has the appetite of a bird. Youngest is obese so crisps are an occasional treat rather than an everyday food.

I have bought him a packet of crisps today, for a picnic. If I bought crisps all the time I'd eat them every day

barbiedoll

When I was at secondary school we had "nazi" dinner ladies! They used to come prowling around the tables, making comments that there were "starving children" who would be grateful for the food on our plate, to which we ALWAYS replied "Well, let them eat it then!" They would keep order in the dinner queue which, even at my slightly posh girls grammar school, would often get pretty heated. They would make sure that we ate properly and that we cleaned our plates and left the tables tidy and (relatively) clean for the next dinner sitting or for the other dinner ladies who had to clean up when we had finished. They were quite terrifying, especially to those of us who had never had school dinners before!

But we did eat well, we did learn to tidy up after ourselves and we did thoroughly appreciate a hot meal and dessert in the middle of the day. I was always a terribly fussy eater at home but I loved school dinners, it was the highlight of my day.

When I was in the fourth form (year 10 now), they changed the system and no more proper hot meals were cooked on the premises. Instead, we had the horrible "cafe" style food, with the same boring pizza, burgers and chips every day. The only improvement was being able to have a cup of tea at lunchtime, instead of water. I ended up having a cheese sandwich, crisps and a Bounty bar every day, hardly healthier than a plate of cottage pie, veg and gravy (yum!)

My son's school has just set up a "healthy" breakfast club. The best-selling item on the menu?....Bacon rolls! :eek:

fluffnutter

I'm not sure I can get too worked up about this. Having kids means you're part of the system, that people will want to be involved in their welfare, justifiably or not.

And why not? Make no mistake, obesity's an epidemic. It's a timebomb waiting to go off right in your children's faces. It's going to cost the NHS, and therefore taxpayers, billions. And who's going to stop it? Parents aren't hearing the message (not all of them anyway). Industry doesn't care. The government's too soft with all its talk of 'self-regulation'. So that leaves schools to push the rather unpalatable message - your kids are fat. Stop feeding them crap.

The system's simply not refined enough to sort the bad parents from the good so inevitably everyone gets targeted.

Owain_Moneysaver

Own_My_Own wrote: »

You would be amazed how many children have crisps everyday.

Or even nothing but crisps.

Own_My_Own

jellyhead wrote: »

okay

I've never been in a school dinner hall, other than when parents get invited to have a school meal with the children.

I couldn't imagine giving mine crisps every day - the very underweight eldest wouldn't eat anything else for the rest of the day because he has the appetite of a bird. Youngest is obese so crisps are an occasional treat rather than an everyday food.

I have bought him a packet of crisps today, for a picnic. If I bought crisps all the time I'd eat them every day

There are thousands of families out there on low incomes that are not entitled to free school meals. Now while some of them will manage to make and pack a healthy school lunch, many more can or do not.

It is a sad fact that pre-bought healthy food is more expensive than unhealthy food.
And when all said and done, any packed lunch is better than no lunch.

laurel7172

I stopped my daughter having school meals because she came home every day claiming to have had chips, something-\I-didn't-eat and cake.

Imagine, then, how impressed I was when they confiscated a treat-sized bar of chocolate (three squares of Dairy Milk), which I'd put in as a birthday, ie once-a-year treat..

One rule for packed lunches, another for school dinners...

merlin1

Aha! polishbigspender, We meet again! it's funny that i was reading a thread a short while ago where a member was asking what we all do with our 11-teen year old during the holidays. I remember thinking 'good grief, i asked this question back in 2010' and hoped you didnt respond likewise. because you said and I quote:

"Child care for an 11 year old?

You are joking, right?

This is just a sick joke, right? I mean - you don't really want to find childcare for a child who will be going into the 2nd year of secondary school, right?

And people wonder why British society is breaking down..... "

thread just incase you have forgotten - https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/2558153

Now, at the end of that vitriol there was a dig at british society breaking down. Why I wonder if this might be yet another sly dig at british society i do not know....

Anyway to answer your question, no this is not the norm, however schools around here have implemented rules, as to what and what should not go into lunchboxes. The lunch ladies do their very best but they certainly do not shout.

I only remember being shouted at when I was i a primary school that had just 64 children across 4 primary years - we were cooked for and expected to eat a hot meal. but that was around 25 years ago and up the hills of derbyshire

have a pleasant day now

just editing to add an appology for throwing the thread of topic somewhat. really i am sorry!

balletshoes

OP what happens where you are?

Ladyhawk

Are you really comparing the maniacs who perpetrated the mass murder of million of innocent people with some school dinner ladies?