What has really changed since Jamie Oliver's school meals?

He made money and feck all changed.........except he put on a bit of weight too.

My school dinners in both primary and secondary school were absolutely amazing. All home cooked and healthy.

At primary we had no choice, it was what it was, but it was always lovely.

Now there seems to be contracted out dining, all local schools get the same shite. They get a small choice, which I think results in the majority of the children choosing the less healthy option daily.

Heavily carb laden. And very random concoctions. Pizza and mashed potatoes is one I hear of often.

But… I’m still too lazy to make lunches daily so, pizza and mash it is

I was at secondary school between 2002 and 2008. We had always had a salad bar, healthy options and pasta bar. The difference post Jamie was that chips weren't an option apart from on Fridays and they stopped any crisps, chocolate bars etc so all the veg Dodgers swapped to packed lunches or bought crisps etc from the corner shop before school instead! Funnily enough looking back though chocolate bars weren't allowed you could still buy a whopping great big fresh fried chocolate doughnut filled with choc sauce!

I think that people who knock them probably dont eat that many

I do, or rather did. I used to take a hot meal at work if there were some left over or order one on days I hadn't brought from home. Over cooked soggy pasta and veg, bland tasteless sauces, poor quality meats such as dry turkey burgers and the same chicken slices that makes up every chicken dish is watery and oddly textured. Dc complain of the same and their school uses a different provider.

I guess it varies. The primary my son attends seem to have good meals.

There is always lots of choice, vegetables available and salad bar where children help themselves.

My son enjoys his lunches and seems to eat a good variety. That said, he isn't in the least bit fussy and enjoys vegetables. I know a couple of his classmates don't have lunches because they are fussy and won't eat anything that's available.

He's just finished Y2 and we are going to pay next year so he can continue to have lunches.

I teach in a secondary and the food there isn't brilliant to be honest. Pasta pots/wedges/pizza/average sandwiches is about it. The kids seem to enjoy it though!

Anecdotally (a friend is on the Board of Trustees for a large education academy group), many schools did attempt to make meals healthier but it resulted in a significant proportion of children rejecting the food because it wasn’t what they were used to at home - which is a huge problem where FSM children are concerned, if they don’t eat the lunch which could be their main meal of the day

That's one of the saddest things I've ever read. The idea that parents are feeding their children such shite that they can't tolerate even vaguely decent stuff is heartbreaking.

Interesting. Think Valerie's post proves it was more complicated than he thought. Very telling that he hasn't come back to re-address the issue?

The problem with the school dinners was that while some were shockingly bad those that did in house catering were actually quite good. In trying to bring the worse ones up to standard all schools needed to invest in equipment (think panini makers for example) that took money away from salaries for staff and food. The children didn't like what was offered so wouldn't eat it. It turned out that they liked chips! The independent school canteens became uneconomical. The in house caterers were and food services came in. Jamie caused more problems than he solved in my experience. It was throwing the baby out with the bath water.

I'm honestly not surprised Jamie Oliver's restaurants are failing. The very generation that he effed up school dinners for are now part of his target market.

We have long memories Jamie. You took our Turkey Twizzlers, we'll take our custom to Gino D'Acampo down the road

Our towns are reasonably good (all the primaries we looked at seem to use the same catering company). Every day there's a main option, a veggie option and a jacket potato option plus pudding. Parents book online the week before. My dad (works in lots of the local primaries) says the portions are generous.

The choices aren't as adventurous as they are at DS2s nursery but they are filling reasonably healthy, and stuff most DC will eat (bolognese, sweet and sour chicken, macaroni cheese etc.)

I think it depended on the school and probably still does. I was in my first teaching job in 2005 and the food was absolutely fantastic, the school was on BBC news, got invited to meet Prince Charles (I think) and so on. But many/most of the students were from backgrounds and cultures where they were used to having healthy home-cooked meals out of school so it wasn't such a leap for them to have it in school too. They did moan about losing the veggie pasty though!

I then moved counties a year or two later and found myself with a menu that for one day a fortnight every single hot meal choice was pasta. But they still ticked the boxes somehow, possibly because they didn't really do puddings. I was so irrationally gutted that I couldn't go and buy a lovely lunch every day.

[quote UndertheCedartree]@idontlikealdi - my DD is partial to a JP and cheese! Think she had it quite a lot in Reception but eats other things now, thank goodness!

A couple of the things I'd like to see changed - they have sausages on the menu every week with either chips or hash browns - I'd rather something less processed. I'd like to see less cake for dessert and more fruit salad.[/quote]
Whilst I agree fruit would be much tastier, describing what is served as cake is a huge stretch. I've worked in a few schools across two counties and the 'cake' is basically a bread because it has so little sugar. There are usually leftovers (says something if children don't even want seconds of pudding) and if they are put in the staffroom they're left uneaten.

Everything got much worse because he didn't understand the real problem.

I just want to know what @RaindropsonPiglets does for a living!

It’s got a lot shitter in primary IMO.

I was in my first year of secondary school in 2005. The only thing that changed was he got rid of our donuts. Which we err outraged by because they were amazing. Our food was really good though. All homemade by the old lady who had cooked there even when my dad was there. She used to come in at 5am and make everything from scratch.