Are school meals really so bad?

My daughter only goes to school dinners a few days a week but when she does she is always starving and hangry when she gets out. She usually begs for her tea early so I now make sure she gets a snack or we do an early tea those days. The portions do seem to be tiny.

I do a lot of STEM talks to encourage young women into science and engineering and have visited at least 10 schools a year for the past 15yrs. These have all been in inner London. As a treat (?!!), we get to have lunch in the school canteen after. I’ve actually been amazed by the food, both my like the chips, iced buns, and unidentifiable crap we used to have at my school. There are a wide range of options, salad bar, healthy looking hot meals, jacket potatoes, lots to choose if you’re vegetarian or vegan. I always look forward to the lunch!!

Not bad, just expensive, my son spend £6 a day

Both my dc have always had school dinners. I think they’re fine. My eldest in particular really likes hers (secondary school). Both are cooked on site. The primary school has a cook who literally whips them up every morning in the kitchen.

I went to private school the whole way through. Secondary school was good, but primary school we literally had regular/chocolate/strawberry milk and hot meal choices of pizza or burger, both in plastic packets that were just microwaved en masse and handed out still in the plastic like the ones from a vending machine. 😬 I took a packed lunch.

I was recently helping at the school and got to see the dinners and got served one.( same portion as the kids)
There was fish and chips.
The fish was a battered shaped piece about the size of 2.5 fish fingers. It was oily. Chips maybe 12 on the plate and peas . The peas were like bullets.
Pudding was a choice of cake or jelly.
Fruit bowl too all fruit mixed in chopped up, wedges of melon , pineapple , 1/4 oranges etc

Never in my life have I seen such horrible food.
There was also pasta. Which looked stodgy slapped on a plate.

My dcs have the dinners 4/5 days because their friends do and they all like to sit together.

I always cook in the evening around 5. But they do have a snack.of their choosing between school and then because they're hungry.

The portion size at school my dcs were eating at age 3. And they're not big kids at all

School lunch seems to be pretty good at my DC's state school. There's a lot more variety than I used to have as a kid.

My child is at nursery in Scotland, age 3 through to P5 (age 9-10) get free school meals. The food at our school/nursery seems quite good, 2 x veggie days per week and 2 x meat/fish, with a packed lunch to take home on Friday as school finishes by 12.00. The menu rotates 4 weekly, mix of coated salmon or white fish goujons, macaroni cheese, baked potatoes with cheese and beans, haggis neeps and tatties, Spanish sauce with veggie balls, veggie sausages xxx casserole, cheese pizza, various other things with some sort of boiled new potatoes, chips, mash and a veg such a corn on the cob, broccoli and cauliflower, peas and corn. They also always have brown bread and cold veg fingers available such as peelers, cucumber, carrots for those who don't like some part of the meal. Sometimes fruit or yoghurt afterwards. They can help to dish thier own food but are asked to try everything available. They can have seconds if it's available. There are often fruit and other yoghurt type things offered as well. They have milk or water with meals. Overall very happy. I understand the menu is similar but more extensive in the main school and older children can have seconds if they wish, everyone starts with a similar portion.

@Muchtoomuchtodo surprisingly this was a factor for us as well in choosing private. My dc is a very picky eater and I can tell you packed lunches would be the biggest frustration for me. He would just expect the same, less nutritional lunches that he ate at home and repeat.

At school and being with his friends who are eating and trying different things, he has eaten and experimented far more than I could ever have imagined without a battle at home. Sometimes he tells me he ate something at school and can I make it at home!! That's huge for me. The menus change every term as well so it's always exposure to new food. For parents of picky and sensory eaters, you cannot understand how much this makes a difference.

@Talipesmum that is a good menus, lots of variety. Similar to ours.

This is shocking! How is that ok for a 15yo!

There are some problems with school dinners at the schools my kids went to.

4 year olds and 11 year olds get the same portion size.

They serve the youngest first and sometimes run out when it’s time for year 6s to eat.

There’s mountains of food waste by the kids.

Dinners were made on site but kids (including mine) are often quite fussy so can detect a different recipe or product to what they are used to. For example they still use “mystery meat” on roast day (the meat that’s super thinly cut like ham for sandwiches) which would have my kids suspicious.

My son went to a secondary which went from a caterer with good portion size but not very tasty to the opposite (delicious but tiny portions) I guess that people would have to pay more for delicious and good portion size.

Our school has a great menu, each term is different and there are different 'stations'. It caters for picky eaters, vegan, religious dishes, salad bar, desert station, and the parents have been in to see the setup. Kids can definitely have seconds. This is a private school though.
We also get a snack break and there's fruit, juice, biscuits.

Friends at the local state school also say it's good menus. Perhaps it's area dependent.

In my son's primary we pay 3.20 but the portions are miniscule (e.g. 1 small slice of a pizza - I can buy the whole pizza for this in some shops). The catering company must be making a lot of money. He always comes home very hungry.

This was my 15yo's lunch yesterday (mayo brought in separately!)

I think ours are OK, there's always a meat/veggie/and a jacket potato option. In DS1s words "they put vegetables in the cake at school"

When i went to school the dinners were awful never got enough it was such a small amount.
Went with a friend to collect her child years ago and went through the dinner hall at lunch time and i couldent stand the smell my stomach was turning.
The portion sizes are still tiny.
My own child use to take his own lunch he hated school dinners.

When my DD was at primary school her lunch was charged at £2.40. It may have gone up a bit since then. At her independent secondary school it is about £6 a day. The difference is understandably significant. £2.40 isn't very much when you have to include staffing and equipment, as well as the cost of ingredients.

Ours are at state schools. Experience has varied over the years as different catering providers have been brought through. Generally I’d say it’s been pretty good, def not pizza / cheese rolls each day.

At the high school the food has been great. Varied and interesting and plenty of non beige available. At the start of this school year though they’d changed and son came home complaining about how it had got really bad. Must have been a new provider or a menu downgrade as it was a sharp change. Anyway, at Xmas, news came out that they were switching to a new provider again, and this time it’s excellent. We get detailed reports daily! Noodle pots, veggie curries, stir fry, falafel, all seems appealing and sensible. I’ve attached a couple of the menus - it’s on a 3 weekly rotation so there are 2 more sets similar to this.

Wouldn’t it be cheaper just to send packed lunches?!

Our school offer extra bread and butter for hungry ones, and older years can get second helpings if there is enough left and they ask. Portions are enough for DS even leaving a bit, but he is young still. I think young kids getting hungry are either leaving too much or a bit greedy, but the portions should be increased for Y5 and Y6.

When DS was upset about bullying at his old school he didn't eat at school for a bit, but he didn't eat packed lunch then either so the idea that we might not have cared when we were told is a bit silly. Moving to a better school sorted it out. DS is willing to try every new meal, but will leave it if he doesn't like it, so we have had a few misses. Then he doesn't pick that one again, but that's another 2-3 meals in each term not eaten. If he gets jacket potato they give very generous toppings, so he'll fill up on ham, beans and salad... and you'll probably see most of the potato in the bin. Then there are meals he likes, served with wedges or lumps of cauliflower that he won't eat but is put on the plate anyway. With a big breakfast and dinner, it isn't usually an issue, but you can see how there is a lot of wastage. Letting kids pick their own protein, carb and veg for more meals would be better. Still, today is Friday so every plate will be empty!

My DC had reasonable school dinners at primary school. It was a large primary (four form entry) and the decision had been made to bring catering in house when the private provider contract came up for renewal. The head cook had children at the school and was motivated to provide good food.

The food at their secondary has been shockingly bad, private contractor. Crap nutritional value, shrinking portions, frequently running out before all children were served.

I think the key is your child attends private and the budget is probably a lot higher than state for school lunches. The budget, I believe, is the same per child regardless of the size of the state school. However although ours is a small village, it will be in a group contract with the contracted caterers for the whole academy trust which balances costs

There is a variety but also a few unhealthy days such as pizza on Mondays - I’d hazard a guess that this wasn’t made from scratch. Having said that my child ends up eating tomato pasta bake or jacket potato with cheese daily if left to her own devices. I’m not willing to pay £2.75 for that daily and would rather use the money towards a more nutritionally balanced pack lunch with lots of veg, fruit and protein

This is part of the reason my children don't attend state school. The food quality, portions and flexibility is appalling. So many children don't like the main options so have a plain sad cheese sandwich with nothing else for their lunch.