Cost of packed lunches v hot school dinner

MrsSippi

maman wrote: »

I agree. Many parents give children far too much food and many children can't be bothered to eat it as they're desperate to get out to play. For many a small snack at lunchtime and another at the end of the school day is preferable.


I think another thing to consider is how the children will be eating across the day.. If OP intends to cook a family evening meal then there's no need for another cooked meal at lunchtime.


But some parents have subsidised food at work or take substantial leftovers to reheat. If by having a cooked meal at school, the family can just have a light meal like something on toast or a jacket potato in the evening then as a family it might be cost effective to pay for school meals.

Thanks for the reply. Your first point is something I need to consider as dd is definitely the type to be more keen to be outside playing than eating a big lunch.

I will continue to cook a family meal at dinner so I suppose this is something else to consider. I did offer dd a 2nd hot meal at dinner when she had a hot lunch (mainly because she is slightly underweight (officially, not just me thinking she is) and I thought it couldn't hurt to get a bit of weight on her.

pumpkin89 wrote: »

You can't really compare a roll made with one slice of cheap ham against a quality cooked meal. If you just want the cheapest option possible, fair enough, but otherwise OP needs a like-for-like comparison.

Stoke wrote: »

Is a school dinner a quality cooked meal? I remember high school..... just about. The food was borderline inedible and incredibly unhealthy with a fairly limited choice. Beef burger like you'd get from a football match (plastic patty job), pizza, shortbread, etc. No real option for salad or anything a little healthier.

This was before the whole school food health kick had started but I can't imagine the situation has greatly improved. Perhaps they offer an apple now?

So really, you can compare a cheaply made sandwich against a cheaply made meal.

Regarding the quality of the school dinners (as I know this gets discussed a lot) I think dd's school is in the minority as the meals are extremely good quality. The school hire a catering company and they change the menu each term and parents are invited to taste test a variety of the dishes and offer opinions before the new term starts. There never seems to be a shortage of food and everyday the children are given the following: a meat based/vegetarian/baked potato with filling main meal, a salad bar, bread rolls and a choice of hot pudding/yoghurt/fruit salad for dessert. They are also offered milk or water as a drink. I have no comparison obviously but that seems quite good for £2.10?

MrsSippi

buildersdaughter wrote: »

My own experience is that they have greatly improved - my grandchildren have lovely school lunches which they enjoy.
I think a lot depends on what else your daughter eats over the day, what her friends are doing, and what her appetite is generally. Maman writes about children rushing out to play, but not all do.
If a good school lunch is enjoyable, and means she can just have what we used to call a 'bread-and-butter' tea, then you are saving time, and the money evens out. If she doesn't enjoy it, and you are still cooking an evening meal for her, then it will be expensive on time and money.
I would ask her what she wants to do, and let her know that (subject to sensible notice) she can change her mind, and so can you.
My own children took packed lunches for mix of reasons, and I would get them, from age 5, to help plan (including budget at the level they could understand) and prepare.

Thank you for the reply. I think school dinners have improved overall. Admittedly I'm going back a good few years but when I was at primary school in the late 80s/early 90s we were allowed to choose what we ate, which for a lot of us meant burgers and chips everyday (funny enough though there wasn't the childhood obesity issues there are today )

Dd doesn't tend to have a big appetite I find during school lunch time (at home she tends to eat more) as she's more keen on getting outside to play.

I think I might have to do the trial and error approach and let her decide what she wants (menus for the term are given out in advance) and then pick out what hot meals she wants to have and do packed lunches the other days. Thid way over time I can amend it if I think it's needed.

suejb2

[QUOTE=

I think I might have to do the trial and error approach and let her decide what she wants (menus for the term are given out in advance) and then pick out what hot meals she wants to have and do packed lunches the other days. Thid way over time I can amend it if I think it's needed.[/QUOTE]

Your school maybe different but the one I work in (also where my children went) you cannot pick and choose daily. You need to give two weeks to go onto packed lunches or dinners.

Owain_Moneysaver

MrsSippi wrote: »

A very basic lunchbox will include something like a sandwich[STRIKE], a yoghurt, some fruit, carrot or cucumber sticks, some cheese, some breadsticks and a small fairy cake.[/STRIKE]

Poundland sandwich. £1. Sorted. :money:

MrsSippi

suejb2 wrote: »

Your school maybe different but the one I work in (also where my children went) you cannot pick and choose daily. You need to give two weeks to go onto packed lunches or dinners.

In DD's school we are quite lucky because the children are allowed to choose on a daily basis whether they are having a hot lunch or packed lunch. This is quite helpful as we can pick and choose what she's having on each day.

maman

MrsSippi wrote: »

In DD's school we are quite lucky because the children are allowed to choose on a daily basis whether they are having a hot lunch or packed lunch. This is quite helpful as we can pick and choose what she's having on each day.

In my experience, being able to choose is more common especially in areas where many children take packed lunches to try to save money.

These catering companies are businesses and they'd prefer to offer meals daily in the hope that having had a taste children will become regular paying customers.

Incidentally, not that it applies to you, schools like to know if a child qualifies for Free School Meals even if they choose not to have one as it affects the education funding.

eamon

As an alternative idea why not packed lunch for Sep - end of Oct, hot school dinner for the Winter months then revert to a packed lunch for Spring.

rach_k

I worked out the costs of making a similar quality packed lunch and it actually worked out more expensive than school lunches for us (£11.25/week for school lunches, £12.05/week for a packed lunch). That does include things like organic meat for sandwiches, branded yoghurts, Babybels, making fruit salad from more exotic fruits, healthier crisps or biscuits, and I only looked at Tesco prices.

You could do it a LOT cheaper but the quality of the school meals here is great and they have a good variety of different foods so I don't want to swap to packed lunches unless I can compete on quality, and I'm set in my ways shopping at Tesco!

The £440 a year cost makes my eyes water a bit but I think it's worth it for what they get (here at least), if you can afford it. I also appreciate that having a full cooked lunch means I don't always have to do a big evening meal, which is good when you sometimes only have a couple of hours between home time and bed time.

Doom_and_Gloom

Your DD sounds like she has school meals like I used to have (I'm 29 so...) and looking at the menu now at the primary I went to is rather simular still. Healthy, real meals and the odd junk day i.e pizza and an afters that was sometimes healthy or a little more indulgent (allergens and certain diets accounted for too). I used to have school dinner all the time as my parents knew they were value for money and were usually healthy. The exception was school trips where I'd get a lunch box full of fruit and another with pasta salad or simular with something else perhaps in yet another full sized lunch box (I was an underweight child also and very active). I distinctly remember the dinner lady's were good at encouraging us to eat everything before going out to play and that was also with the option of seconds on main and/or afters if they had that and we wanted it.

You could send her in with pasta/quinoa/couscous etc salad or the like instead of sandwiches. Though sandwiches do tend to be the go to I know. The cost can be simular, cheaper or more expensive. It depends on what she eats and how much. £2.10 sounds comparable to what it would have been for my parents in *then* money.

Savvy_Sue

maman wrote: »

I think another thing to consider is how the children will be eating across the day.. If OP intends to cook a family evening meal then there's no need for another cooked meal at lunchtime.

That's something, but there are some other considerations too.

DS1 was appallingly fussy as a child. If I'd been making him packed lunches every day, I swear he'd have wanted exactly the same thing every single day, and would have ended up eating an even less varied diet. Honestly, I don't know that he ate very much at lunchtimes, but at least at primary school he go to TRY different things. And our next door neighbour was one of the dinner ladies so she looked out for him, commented to me that he NEVER had a pudding and told me and him that there were always yoghourts and fruit if he wanted them instead.

come secondary school, when there were choices, he chose to eat a jacket potato with cheese and baked beans. Every Single Day.

Then there's what you're up to after school. By getting a cooked lunch at school, we could grab a sandwich after school, which was faster. Bearing in mind my motto was 'Feed the Crabby', speed was everything, and I was just never sufficiently organised to have a meal in the slow cooker waiting for them.

Plus if friends were coming home with them, I could check with their mums if a sandwich or toast was OK, and that was cheaper than cooking a meal too ... and possibly dealing with other people's fussy children!

DH came home after they needed to be fed, and in the early days he had a very good works canteen, so it was just me and whoever was still at home to be fed at lunchtime.

So to me, it's not just about money.

BTW DS1 became less fussy once he got to Uni and there was sometimes Free Food. But only if you ate Pizza. Or Curry. Or similar unmentionables. Jackets were rarely on the menu. :rotfl: