To think that free breakfast at school is a bad idea due to the quality?

It depends on the jam and what's in it.

My issue is with universality and the dumbing down it brings.

Why is everyone so against jam its fruit and low in fat obviously it has a high sugar content but in moderation is fine

Porridge is a really cheap option and highly nutritious.

This isn’t served at breakfast. Most schools are similar to mine and are toast, cereal and if you’re lucky, porridge. There is also fresh fruit provided on occasion.

Bloody sight healthier than an empty stomach. Even cheap cereal is usually eaten with milk.

So you would rather see a child have no breakfast and go hungry over having jam on toast at school?

I work in a school that is in a deprived area. To put it simply, there is no money. Our breakfast club provides cereal or toast and runs at a loss, despite not being part of the government scheme and charging per session. The government scheme would leave us worse off, as the funding is not enough to feed the children and pay staff to man the breakfast club.

You mean the government are not setting the children up. If it was fully funded then the schools could provide. Because it isnt then they cant. They literally have to provide food for say 200 kids a day not knowing how many will rock up. Food waste will be appalling from that if they bought enough eggs and avos to feed 200 kids a day but only 10 turned up! The parents are the issue here. Not feeding their kids so they're not setting the kids up. The schools are doing what they can on bare bones budget which means staff work for free. Coincidentally usually the ones on the lowest income meaning staff earn less than minimum wage as a result. Also this club removed the education from the children who need it the most because staff are washing up dishes instead of helping them in class. Now it is toothbrushing too and potty training. Might as well bring their PJs and they can sleep. Hand them back at 18 is the idea I think. We as a society shouldn't just nod when new initiatives are loaded onto schools then criticise them as they do their best without money to fund it properly.

What would your idea to ensure no food waste or ensure staff aren't shopping each night because more kids rocked up than anticipated? Yes staff do food shopping themselves in their own time and do not get the money back for months in many schools.

Yes I agree I'm waiting for the excuses though, personally I have no time for them if I managed to feed my kids breakfast having no job and being young what excuse does someone with a job or over 25 and getting a lot more benefits than an under 25 have? Cornflakes is literally 80p and even though it's processed it's not the end of the world it's fortified with vitamins if it was kraves or that Oreo balls cereal I'd get the arguement it's unhealthy but not all cereals are even that sugary.

Parents not feeding their kids breakfast is neglect and breakfast club won't stop them because they're not the type to get to school on time anyway let alone earlier

Cereal and cheap bread are ultra highly processed foods. Not healthy at all.

It will literally be cereal, milk, toast and fruit. How can that be bad?

Schools can’t even provide students with proper teachers. All money goes to senior management at the trusts. Our children are being robbed.

In the USA 25% of all healthcare spending is on diabetes. Here it’s £11 billion a year and rising, about 10% of the entire NHS budget. 80% of this cost could be avoided if people ate a healthier diet and exercised more. This is a huge national disaster and it affects all of us. Even if your own life is not touched by diabetes you will be paying a lot of tax that doesn’t need to be paid and have an NHS with 10% less capacity than it could have.
It’s a big mistake for the government to stick its head in the sand, but the sorry truth is that many many companies are profiting hugely from the status quo. Diet and exercise do matter and schools are not setting children up for healthy lives. Neither are a lot of parents, and to be fair our society doesn’t make it easy.
Cocopops for breakfast in my opinion is not a healthy or responsible choice. As a society, we need to do better.

I think it misses the point when posters say that they/their kids always have a bowl of Shreddies or whatever, and that's normal, so what's the fuss? For me, the issue is that for some kids, breakfast club is sometimes the only opportunity to eat whole foods, natural-state foods, and so on during their day, and also get a bit of eduction about why those foods are important for their bodies.

If they're not getting that information at home, or if their food at home is all UPFs or non-existent some evenings then that's a very different situation to kids who get Shreddies in the morning, but a cooked meal with vegetables etc in the evening, or a piece of fruit when they get home from school or whatever.

There is not an easy answer, or an easy fix, but giving up on making sure that ALL kids eat healthily isn't an option either. By failing to help this generation eat better, we condemning both this one, and the next one to worse health outcomes, shorter life expectancy and so on.

Binning SureStart Centres was an awful thing. They really helped a lot of families.

Between 80% and 90% of Type 2 diabetes is lifestyle related so to ignore this seems unwise when we consider diet decisions at a population level, such as what to feed our school children.

eugh, I was looking forward to a holiday in Japan next year.

nit so much now!

Rice, tamago with sugar, salt in soy, mirin, sake, bouillon powder, tsukemon (vegetables pickled in salt/brine), miso (contains salt), natto (not actually that popular with many Japanese people and contains a lot of salt) and many things fried for breakfast? Followed up by sugared whipped cream white bread sandwiches with fruit for lunch or more seasoned rice? Or ramen? Or are we thinking of Pocky sticks, dango, mochi, cream pan (sugar in the dough as well, as there is with pretty much all bread) and melon pan?

I'm not saying these aren't great things to eat, but actual Japanese food isn't boiled veg (I'll take a hard pass on raw chicken, horsemeat, eggs or sugar in my omelettes, though) bereft of seasoning on a plate and the children lap it up.

Free breakfast better than no breakfast. Same as nuggets and chips for tea better than no tea.
The main point of free breakfast is to get the kids in reliably for the start of school and ready to learn.

Type 2 isn't always either.

Neither is type 3 or the other types.

Sometimes type 2 is. Sometimes it isn't.

Yes I’m happy for ds to eat at home or pay a club if needed. It should only be free for low income households. The breakfast for all sounds like a nice idea but not sustainable.

@RosesAndHelleborest1 is not lifestyle related though.

Because, 14 years of austerity.

You're right, any breakfast is better than none.

I don’t agree with universality, though. We could pay for our kids and would happily have paid for someone else too.

I know few people with diabetes @PrincessFluffy, one is MIL who has always been as skinny as a rake. It's developed over the last year or two, tyoe 2, - she's 89. Step's blood tests always come back as pre-diabetes and he's overweight, eats shit and drinks too much, but not obese - albeit entirely self inflicted. A work colleague, type 1 from childhood, slim and fit - cycles 16 miles a day to work and back.

Not all generalisations are helpful and some diabetes, even type two is genetic. It runs through step's and DH's family. DH has to be very careful to keep the sugar levels down with diet and exercise - not overweight.

I know people of all shapes and sizes.

I dislike cereal and always have. I can't see anything appealing about. I don't mind good quality muesli with a little fruit and Yoghurt. Whilst I prefer porridge, unlike most people, it bungs me up dreadfully.

I always had weetabix or shredded wheat in for the DC but generally they preferred egg or beans or cheese on toast or fruit and Yoghurt. on their birthdays, I bought a variety pack of mini cereals so I didn't have to buy a whole box of coco pops!