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

This story always comes up on these kind of threads, and I think these examples are the exception and not the norm. Banning food groups is clearly not the best idea, but we need to teach our kids moderation. The same way as adults, the vast majority of us drink alcohol in moderation, UPF should be eaten in moderation.

A glass of wine and a packet of crisps now and then won’t do us any harm. A glass of wine and a packet of crisps for breakfast every day clearly not advisable!

It’s not just that. A Bulgarian school has far less but manage to provide veggie loaded food cooked from scratch.

There is a middle ground between chocolate cereal for breakfast every day and obsessing over upfs. Neither is healthy.

Personally I'd say setting a child up for a life of unhealthy relationships with food and potentially eating disorders due to their parents obsession with UPFs is a lot meaner.

What would actually be way more “mean” is setting them up to get diabetes in later life

I wouldn't suggest banning foods. What I would suggest is teaching our kids that some foods are better for us than others. And I would never label food of poor nutritional value as a treat!

Yes, of course you can have a bowl of coco pops for example, but once a week, because although they taste good, they don’t provide our bodies with anything they need to function.

My young adults do not have body issues or obsess about food in any way at all. But they generally choose more nutritious food.

It should be the norm that healthy, wholesome nutritious food is our go to, and the less good stuff consumed less often, but as a nation, we are the highest UPF consumers in Europe and a huge percentage of the population believe white bread and cereal are good breakfast options.

As a nation, we are clearly doing something very wrong.

2/3 of UK adults are overweight or obese and there is an explosion of diabetes diagnoses. I think “feckless” is pretty insulting unless the vast majority of UK adults are also “feckless”. Let’s be honest there are structural issues here and massive economic vested interests that are driving obesity and diabetes. The government is well placed to exert influence in the right direction. 9% of the NHS budget is spent on managing type 2 diabetes which is largely preventable through lifestyle.

Most parents can and do feed their children breakfast. It is pretty basic parenting. I think this should be a targeted provision.

This is very very interesting. And reassuring. One of concerns with the suggestion to swap from lunch to breakfast a few years ago was that I had noticed that the children who i knew to be from most disadvantaged families were often the children who were the most likely to be consistently late. I worried that at least with lunch as their free meal, they got a meal whereas breakfast would not be used. But you seem to be saying that if anything, they are MORE likely to turn up if there's breakfast on offer? If thats true I am 100% in favour.

the junior school I work in provides about 300 school meals a day currently. Every day fresh bread is made and the cake/biscuits are baked from scratch. Fresh fruit is always an option and includes watermelon, honeydew, pineapple and grapes and is chopped every morning. We have a salad bar too. Meat comes from the butcher, sacks of potatoes are peeled and prepared, veg is a mix of fresh and frozen depending on the meal but broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, peas and sweetcorn. The meals are cooked from scratch daily and the only frozen items are fish and oven chips once a week plus a couple of quorn veggie ones. Even the pizza is cooked fresh on the day.
the recipes are varied and not always loved by the kids but the food is provided and is good healthy food with minimal UPFs.
We can’t be unique and our catering company is very keen on using fresh ingredients.

This is a radical idea, but how about you don’t eat the cocoa pops so that you model the Good behaviour for your children?

Outrageous, I know but worth considering
I hate chicken and fish, but I had to cook it and eat it in front of my kids so they did.

My kids probably the apple they love fruit and I believe that's because I've never banned food groups or ever called anything a treat food, it's just food. When they become adults and choose their own food they won't have this massive list of foods that where restricted in childhood that they suddenly want to eat. They won't have body issues due to a parent who is obsessing over food and naming it good and bad food. If you make an issue of something it becomes an issue

The UK is destitute, overrun with those who aren’t net contributors to tax, meaning they remove more in services (schools, hospitals, binmen and doctors) than they put back. So no, I don’t think a gastro fresh fruit menu for state school free breakfasts is incoming, regardless of what Starmer promised at the elections. Free breakfasts is just another example of a Labour policy improperly implemented and funded.

Overreaction. Even oats turn to sugar in your body. Non issue

But they are the choices that many people have to make, whether you like it or not. And to say that it should only be good nutritious food or nothing will ultimately be leaving people with nothing.

I do understand what you mean OP. Something is better than nothing ofc but it is sad our standards are so low.
On people saying children won't have healthy options I think if children got used to it they would. My son's nursery has porridge, fruit, no snacks, proper meals, no puddings and water or milk. At home he constantly asks for ice cream but he just accepts that is what they have at nursery.

You are right to be fair but no one will want to hear it, when my kids were younger I was jobless and young (under 25s get a pot less benefits then over 25s) so not many people broker than me except maybe people paying off debts idk. Cereal is only 80p if you don't buy Kellogg's and milk is cheap.
Anyone not feeding their kids breakfast is neglecting them sadly the people I know like this aren't getting their kids to school in time for actual school let alone a breakfast club that starts an hour earlier

Absolutely. I’m a headteacher and I think it’s hard for anyone who doesn’t work in a school to truly understand. As always, schools will do their very best to work with this scheme and provide food, staff and equipment with the funding that will be provided. It’s highly unlikely that it will cover some of the foods suggested in this thread, but a slice of toast with jam is fine, and will allow a child to start the day having being fed and cared for.

And my experience has shown that NY restricting 'bad foods', children crave them more.
I have told the story many times on here about the toddler at a group I went to who mum massively restricted what she ate who was regularly found secretly stashing food under the table and eating leftovers from other's plates. Her mum thought she was exemplary too.
The child is now 20 and obese.

Feeding kids is only 50% the point of the free breakfast club policy. The other 50% is about enabling parents to get to work without additional cost of wraparound childcare in the morning.

In my area of Wales, free breakfast clubs are provided at all primary schools. Over half of parents using the provision drop and go on to work. My kids often eat before they go but if there isn't time at least they got something at school. This also destigmatised the club for those parents who genuinely struggle with food costs and helped reduce numbers of pupils arriving late.

Those of you who are sneering at the idea should check your privilege.

But there are good foods and bad foods! This is the problem. ‘Good foods’ should make up 90% of our diets. And ‘bad foods’ less than 10%. This is what we should be teaching our kids.

If we tell our kids all foods are equal, and that a chocolate bar is the same as an apple, which are they going to choose?

I don't want my kids growing up thinking their are good foods and bad foods. Food is food and everything in moderation. My children are a healthy weight and eat everything without issue.

I can't help feeling that this holier-than-thou micromanaging of children's diet will backfire when they are older, although I am sure you will disagree with me.
My 'children' are 30, 21 and 18, so i have seen lots of changing fads about the best food but - honestly - the people who had the most restricted diets as children are the ones who went haywire as teens when they first had some independence.
I really struggle to understand the middle-class hand-wringing angst over foods that are essentially perfectly normal choices for the vast majority of families.
Now I am sure you will say your children don't like chocolate/inhale fruit/are wide-eyed at the unhealthy choices their friends make, but really, wait.

I mean @ThisDandyWriter I asked this question:

OP out of interest what do you deem an awful UPF breakfast example that they may serve? And what do you usually give your kids at home for breakfast?

And you replied this:

Eggs on whole meal , avo on whole meal, peanut butter on wholemeal, porridge with a teaspoon of Nutella on a Friday, weetabix. Always with fruits.
different everyday as variety is so important. These things take minutes to prepare.

So no it’s not clear to me or other posters what you suggest schools give children

Good nutrition for my children is one of my top priorities, it’s the base for so many things.
we are very much 80/20 and we are not 100% virtuous by any means (last night we had curry ready meals , although on Friday I made fish puttanesca).

breakfast is a really important meal and I would never eat choc cereal myself, but if I really wanted it, I’d eat it away from the children and give them a healthy breakfast.

make light of it if it makes you feel better, but you are doing your children a huge disservice. And the fact you know you are and continue to do it is even worse.

I would say that as an odd treat, it’s ok, but I actually don’t think it is. It’s totally un necessary.

Thin nutelka on whole meal with sliced banana as a Friday treat is 100% better (as long as the other 6 days are healthy and varied….with variation bring the key).