What a waste!!!

elisebutt65

Grrrr - I am so mad with DS1's school and am wondering whether to email them or not!

On Friday, it's Fish & Chips day and despite his food faddiness, he loves fish!!! So when he saw that there was about 6 pieces of fish left he went up and asked if he could have another bit. Their response - No - we're going to throw that out as there aren't anymore chips left???? So he asked whether he could just pay for a bit of fish but NOOOOOOO They can only sell them as part of the set meal!!!

And threw them all out!!!

God - how can they just waste food like that, especially when there were other people asking to buy it(some of his mates wanted some as well)

Blacksheep1979

yes its a waste, but do you really want him stuffing himself with fried food?

elisebutt65

Blacksheep1979 wrote: »

yes its a waste, but do you really want him stuffing himself with fried food?

I don't care how it was cooked!!!! He's actually eating fish which is a minor breakthrough in itself:rolleyes: And then when he asks for more (a la Oliver) He gets told NO - It's going in the bin!!!!

What sort of message is that to give to a 12yr old!!!

looby75

Elise I wouldn't bother writing to the school about it, I would go to the council instead. Schools have very little to do with school meals these days, the council arrange the contracts with caterers.

It is disgusting the amount of food that is wasted every day by school meals contractors. My mum is a dinner lady (the kind that supervises the kids in the lunch hall and playground rather than cooks the food) She also volunteers at her school out of her paid hours. Last week she had a really busy day with her paid work and her volunteer hours running back to back and she didn't have time to have lunch. She had to go into the kitchen at the end of her paid shift and noticed some fish fingers in a tray, she asked if she could have a few and was told no they had to go in the bin, she offered to pay for them and was again told they had to go in the bin, when she had another look she saw there was a load of salad, veg and 3/4 of a tray of sponge cake to go in the bin too :eek:. Mum was told that wasn't at all unusual and if anything that was a good day.

Blacksheep1979

kimevans wrote: »

It doesn't say it was fried. It could have been fish baked in the oven.

No it doesn't, but knowing what schools are like the chances are it was fried or battered.

elisebutt65

Blacksheep1979 wrote: »

No it doesn't, but knowing what schools are like the chances are it was fried or battered.

I just asked him and apparently was cooked in the oven. He is still annoyed - LOL:rolleyes:

I've emailed school and if I don't get a reply then I'll go to the governors and/or council.

I know it seems petty to get riled up over it, but I just think in this day and age with all the charity stuff that goes on with the starving millions etc, then the least the school can do is set a good example.

Pennywise

This happens a lot elsewhere - not just schools. I've tried many times to get something "different" from a menu in plenty of cafe's and restaurants and they just can't do it. Everything is so "dumbed down" that the owners clearly can't trust their staff to work things out for themselves and "straight jacket" them into pressing certain buttons on the till and serving the identical meal regardless of what the customer really wants.

Examples - Brewsters - our DS wanted a piece of chocolate cake, but we know they are huge and they come with either cream or ice cream. We asked for half a piece on its own - offered to pay the proper price, but no, they can't do that, so we said OK a full piece but no cream/ice cream - no - they can't do that. So we didn't bother at all.

Just today, wanted a quick lunch in Asda whilst shopping - they offered bacon baps or sausage baps - we asked for a bacon and sausage - but no they can't do that, it's one or the other - they said we'd have to buy both, put them together and throw away one of the buns.

Trying to get a kiddie meal for DS - typically they are chips with beans and sausages - luckily our DS hates chips but worse, he won't even eat anything on a plate with chips on (he's funny that way). Can we get them to give the meal without chips - no way - not even when we make it clear we don't want a price reduction or a replacement - they just can't do it.

Either the staff are completely incompetent and can't be trusted to do anything that deviates (perhaps like call centre staff) or the managers are control-freaks who don't trust their staff. Either way, there is something seriously wrong - if its like this with something simple like food, I shudder to think what goes on that isn't quite so obvious in govt and big business.

Terrylw1

Pennywise wrote: »

This happens a lot elsewhere - not just schools. I've tried many times to get something "different" from a menu in plenty of cafe's and restaurants and they just can't do it. Everything is so "dumbed down" that the owners clearly can't trust their staff to work things out for themselves and "straight jacket" them into pressing certain buttons on the till and serving the identical meal regardless of what the customer really wants.

Examples - Brewsters - our DS wanted a piece of chocolate cake, but we know they are huge and they come with either cream or ice cream. We asked for half a piece on its own - offered to pay the proper price, but no, they can't do that, so we said OK a full piece but no cream/ice cream - no - they can't do that. So we didn't bother at all.

Just today, wanted a quick lunch in Asda whilst shopping - they offered bacon baps or sausage baps - we asked for a bacon and sausage - but no they can't do that, it's one or the other - they said we'd have to buy both, put them together and throw away one of the buns.

Trying to get a kiddie meal for DS - typically they are chips with beans and sausages - luckily our DS hates chips but worse, he won't even eat anything on a plate with chips on (he's funny that way). Can we get them to give the meal without chips - no way - not even when we make it clear we don't want a price reduction or a replacement - they just can't do it.

Either the staff are completely incompetent and can't be trusted to do anything that deviates (perhaps like call centre staff) or the managers are control-freaks who don't trust their staff. Either way, there is something seriously wrong - if its like this with something simple like food, I shudder to think what goes on that isn't quite so obvious in govt and big business.

Sometimes it comes down to keying orders. I've seen it before and the reply has been "we have no way of pricing that on the till".

That would explain your example for the Asda situation. If they use a till that has options in it, they can't override it in some cases. Seen it before. At least they gave you an alternative though buy doing it yourself, some would have thought you to be awkward. I wonder what would happen if everyone wanted to deviate from a set menu?

Maybe smaller places would have less of an issue as there is an owner but in the case of larger orgainsations, they are told what to do. They also think about the bigger picture in regard to their staff's time so they don't want everyone asking for things outside of a menu that would mean compromising service to others in the process.

Bit sad on the BF bit though, seems a bit daft.

I don't think it's fair to say call call centre staff are incompetant. They tend to be trained poorly, have little support and managers telling them to dump your call if it takes over X mins a lot of the time. There are lots of good call centre staff from what I've seen over the years and there are plenty of bad ones.

PasturesNew

When I had school dinners, I liked to be in the 2nd sitting because once all the dinners were served, you could go up and get 2nds (and 3rds) no further charges.

Terrylw1

Yeah, same when I was at school in the 80/90's. They were more happy to do that than throw it all away. Thesedays it seems everything has to be red tape.

I'm guessing that your childs request would mean the kitchen manager would have to:

1 - fire your request off to the regional manager
2 - RM would then need to set up a meeting to discuss your request
3 - a workshop would be held on the merits of dishing up an extra fish!
4 - minutes produced and circulated
5 - a follow up workshop for a process to be documented e.g. pick up fish and place on plate
5 - process to be reviewed & signed off
6 - your son can have an extra fish

Of course, 6 months on and a new contractor now in place so...go back to 1)

Or am I just a bit cynical about the council???

tupperware

Perhaps they thought it would be unfair on other children should some get more than others.