School dinners v packed lunch

Not about calories/weight though, it's about nutrition.
Eating shit food might give you fuel that you subsequently burned off.... but you're fucking up your body by eating crap most days of your childhood.

Agree with you. All such a shame though and could be (and deserves to be) so much better.

I am a school cook...school cooks have to cook what they're told to cook...even if a school becomes an academy the school still cannot have exactly what they want..school meals have to reach government guidelines and at a cost of just over £2 its extremely difficult to balance out, also at that cost you will not get a heaped plate of food. Cooks cannot over produce food either as stock takes are done at end of every month, and this would show in the costings...everybody's hands are tied to be honest.

We have a jacket potato option but it is lukewarm at best, no butter and a choice of grated mozzarella (cheaper than cheddar) and baked beans. No tuna as it’s too expensive now.
wednesday is roast day but these days that means half a small chicken breast, a couple of tiny roast potatoes and a spoonful of boiled veg. No yorkshire pud or stuffing these days.

How sad that the school dinners seem to be so horrid, so many children rely on this as their only meal. I wouldn't give in personally but keep trying different foods in the safe environment of your home and perhaps she will become less picky?

All that stuff was probably nicer in our day because it was seasoned. Chips used to be a treat.

Kids these days are used to much less salt than we had in those meals, but mine still don't fancy completely salt free chips.

The kid sounds like a fussy eater. My school meals were always chips, beans, burgers, sausages, Turkey twizzlers, pizza.. ooh I miss those days. Didn’t do me any harm.. we did used to play a lot of sports and weren’t glued to screens though so easier to burn it all off etc

That's a really good point @Velvetdragon13 .

Sometimes sandwiches means you can spend your whole lunchtime with your friend. At junior that can mean 2 mins eating 3 bites of your sandwich outside unsupervised, and the rest of the time to play.

Are you sure its entirely picky eating and not just wanting to sit with a friend to eat lunch? I don't know if times have changed, but when I attended school packed lunch kids got to go eat their dinners ahead of cooked school dinners. For me, this meant that my friends got to go eat and I had to stand bored in a queue and eat with people who weren't my friends. This lead to me skipping meals in school and my mum going bananas that nobody made sure I'd eaten a meal she'd paid for.
When I had a kid myself, I gave her the option what she wanted to do - she was a nightmare to get to bed and a nightmare to wake up in the morning (hmm wonder who she took after :P) I had stuff to do, so anything that could survive outside of the fridge was in her lunch box the night before, I quickly whipped a sandwich and finished the box in the morning with it (not that she always ate a sandwich, sometimes she used to pick out the middle and leave the bread, no matter if I used white bread or rolls!)

Many posters are mentioning a baked potato option. My DTs loved a baked potato. Piping hot from the oven, scooped out and mixed with butter , then cheese (which melted) and piled back in while it was still warm…
The baked potato option in school bears no resemblance to this! Lukewarm spud, watery tuna and unmeltng processed ‘cheese’ ..nah!

Yes! We do have a baked potato option but ours are barely warm and rock hard, with leathery skin and unmelted plastic cheese (or the aforementioned watery tuna). Nothing like the ones we make at home. Everything is just such low quality - unsurprising, given that its done on a shoestring (and getting worse as food prices increase).

At my DC's primary there was no sandwich or jacket potato option. Just the main course (meat or veggie).

Many posters are mentioning a baked potato option. My DTs loved a baked potato. Piping hot from the oven, scooped out and mixed with butter , then cheese (which melted) and piled back in while it was still warm…
The baked potato option in school bears no resemblance to this! Lukewarm spud, watery tuna and unmeltng processed ‘cheese’ ..nah!

If she wasn't eating her dinner at school they would let you know so she might be complaining but it's unlikely she's going hungry.

In ours it depends on the size of the school.

In our county it's just hot meat option or hot veggie.

Surely they get a choice? In our school there is the main option (or a veggie man in option) or they can choose jacket potato with tuna, cheese, beans, salad OR they can grab a sandwich. Same for pudding - main option, or fruit or yoghurt or jelly.
Id defo try and keep to school meals!! Ask the school, as there many be more choice.

I’m a teacher, school caterers have to make food nutritious and I eat them often. I’d eat them daily but they’re expensive for staff.

my kids go to my school and they love the food and aren’t picky eaters. Our school has a choice of 4 meals a day. Most I know of do.

my daughter, who loved the dinners, has asked for packed lunches because her best friend has them since she’s gone vegan. I’ve put my foot down and said no. She’s got 7 months of free school dinners and she’s having them.

the food will be nutritious and sustainable too. Ignore the haters who are thinking back to the dinners of the 80s and 90s and stick to your guns.

I'd go school lunches and maybe packed lunch Friday as a treat. That's the compromise I've come too with my year four. Firstly as its free for school lunches for all years in London so why turn that down. Secondly we have a lot of evening activities such as brownies, karate, gymnastics so at least I know she's had a hot meal that day if we have to have quick picnic tea that evening. She enjoys roast dinners, pizzas and jacket potatoes there.

In your position I'd be asking school to monitor what she eats and also asking to go in yourself for a trial meal to see what they are like for yourself (we got offered this before starting primary). I think she's quite possibly manipulating you as maybe one of her friends has packed lunch and she just wants to sit with them - they are often seated seperately so packed lunches sit together and school lunches sit where there is space. But thats why you need to know what she eats from someone in school who watches her. My sons' primary school always offered a salad bar and a choice of jacket potato or sandwich as well as main meal, but sometimes when they are just starting, kids aren't always aware of the options. Both my sons love cucumber and pepper so used to get a portion of those with everything they had.

Probably not popular but I would absolutely have kept them on school meals if they were free. Free school meals up to Y2 were brought in when my youngest was y3 so we missed out on that. I would have jumped at that 10 years ago and we weren't in a cost if living crisis then! Feeding 2 is not cheap. One has autism and the other we suspect has also, but in my view they got to try different foods having school dinners, so actually they aren't that fussy now. Having a child with SEN is extremely expensive and we didn't have a lot of spare money so free school meals would have have been a huge difference to us.

They are much older now and do have packed lunch since covid, when they were in secondary. Packed lunch isn't a cheap option in my opinion but it's probably cheaper than buying everything individually from the eatery/hall like secondaries and sixth forms do. I absolutely LOATHE making them though. It gets worse every single week. I hate it. And I know they could be doing it themselves at their age but they both leave before half 7 on college buses and don't get in until after 5, so it's a long day for them, and as I'm not working at the moment I do it. It's a brain ache doing it, making sure we have enough food in and it takes time (even though they have the same every day - it's harder to do if you want to vary it).

A 4 to 5 year old is capable of a high degree of manipulation and is very persistent in trying patience to get what they want (which may just be where they physically sit for lunch). It's always good to get adult corroboration for an independent viewpoint. If I'd listened to my sons every comment I would have been rolling in electronics by the age of 5 as it sounded like everyone else in the class had xbox, PlayStation switch, phone etc and I was the parent out of touch. A few conversations at the school gates made me realise this was not the case! (it all came later mind). But that just shows how manipulative a young child can be - not saying its the case here, but it could be.

Sounds like you might be better asking for the vegetarian option for her?

Is there not more choice?

my 5 year old chooses a Ham wrap every day
every single day!

she’s happy With that

Ask the school if u can visit and try a school dinner. Then you'll know.

Is there not a Cafeteria option with sandwiches and different fillings, biscuit or spoon of crisps, fruit, yogurt or the main pudding? I worked as a dinner lady for 22 years but sadly after Jamie Oliver's television programme the school meals quality went down rather than up. The bairns didn't want what was so called healthy, but nothing healthy about being hungry when they wouldn't eat it.. My school numbers in the small country school went down to under half. I'm retired now but by the time I left in 2014 the school meals menu was very poor. Free school meals now in Scotland for a lot of children and I think going by my grandchildren the government is paying for really scrimpy portions and poor selection of what is available.

All state school children are entitled to free school meals up to year 2 regardless of income! My ds was actually entitled to fsm 's due to no income when he was at that school - and I was responding to a pp who was speaking about her ds's experience at his independent school.

What wonderfully helpful advice to a mother of a state school pupil eligible for free school meals