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

I went to France recently and every children's menu was chicken nuggets and chips or processed ham and chips.

They also have a children's after school snack that is basically chocolate pieces in a baguette.

I'm sure French children do eat better overall, especially at school but it's not some exotic eating utopia.

It’s great they’re doing it but bloody shit for my business which is a breakfast and after school club. They’re all going to leave because they can now get it free at school. Sorry that was a de rail rant!

@Mushypeasswhat school are you visiting to see those types of food for breakfast? My kids school breakfast is extremely healthy if anything too healthy, the odd cheese on toast wouldn’t hurt. I very much doubt a lot of schools have the types of food you mentioned.

Greek yoghurt, freshly made or sourdough toast and porridge would be more than ok. But the flavoured yoghurt, mass produced white bread and Rice Krispies are all ultra processed.

Our huge over consumption of UPFs is causing heart disease, diabetes, cancer, dementia, autism, adhd, mental health problems. It’s really not ok.

I thought they served up things like yogurt, toast and cereal. That's OK surely?

I'm scotland as well. Specifically south lanarkshire. And there is always fruit and veg available at every meal. The kids pick their lunches every morning. My youngest in nursery has a pic of the food so she can see and can choose. My oldest in p4 picks a tray.

Thursday is steak pie and baby potatoes and already my oldest cant wait as she loves it.

I think free breakfast and lunch for all creates an issue.

School meals should be means tested and if it that means parents on high incomes pay a market price, those in the middle pay a subsidised price and those without means get them free, then sobeit.

When services are provided free at the point of delivery, it makes complaining about poor standards very difficult. Just look at the NHS.

Our DC are grown up now and I recall their state school lunches were abysmal. I think they cost about £1.70 in the early 00's. A good quality packed lunch cost more. I was happy to pay more. The quality of the lunches were raised at every PTA meeting. I can't imagine that being so easy if they are free.

When things become universally free it makes advocating for high standards difficult.

The majority of families do not need the state to feed their children and it is wrong.

I don’t know if you’re being deliberately ignorant but surely you must realise that breakfast club is a lifeline to some parents?

I doubt anyone hauls their kids into school early just so they can have breakfast “with their pals”!

I am very grateful to be able to feed my children a well balanced breakfast and then drop them to school afterwards with a full tummy.

I cannot imagine how awful it would feel to struggle to do that, as equally how awful for the kids who would go to schooo hungry. Thank God breakfast club is there for those who need it.

I can afford bread at 75p and jam at £1?
Listen to yourself and think. Are you really saying parents can't afford £1.75? Just think about it - really?
And wtf have Reform got to do with anything??

Of course some breakfast inside a hungry tummy is better than nothing, but I think the problems this country is facing with regards to food poverty are huge and I’ve no idea what the answer is. Even NHS dietary advice is poor. And the issue of poor quality food is not just in schools, but also hospitals, prisons etc

The UK has the highest UPF consumption in Europe. High UPF consumption is linked to heart health, diabetes, cancers, dementia etc, and now research is linking high UPF consumption to adhd, autism and poor mental health.

In an ideal world, UPF food wouldn’t be the most easily available ‘go to’, but in a world where porridge might be cheap, not everyone can afford to cook it.

We should be providing our kids with healthy, nutritious, unprocessed foods from birth. Our kids should be growing up eating fruit and veg, not coco pops and chicken nuggets.

School breakfasts are just the very tip of the iceberg.

So what, yes of course you can blame the parents if you like, but you're missing the point.. it's not the child's fault if they've not been fed.
In many cases the parents are neglectful yes, but removing the provision wouldn't encourage them to feed their kids either, in that case.
Punishing the child to get to the parents?
Wow.
No wonder Reform are gaining momentum in this country with attitudes like this. No room for nuance, just a big sweeping and damning attitude towards all.
It doesn't really affect you, clearly. You can still afford bread and jam from ocado, so what's your issue?

DS usually has porridge or overnight oats at home, with nut butter, fruit and Greek yogurt, occasionally poached eggs but there's not often enough time mid week. He's only been to breakfast club once as we don't usually need it (both work locally and not in an early start industry), he had shredded wheat with milk, a banana and some grapes, maybe not ticking all of the boxes his at home breakfast would but reasonable. It's also only £3.50 and starts at 7:45. His school has about 35% pupil premium students. If a family was struggling and got it for free, I think it's a sufficient breakfast.

You work closely with schools and are actually asking this question?
There is no separating the children that have healthy breakfasts provided at home to those that haven't. Children often hide the failings of their parents. Surely this is far more important than some kids having an extra slice of toast of a morning.
As for making up a big vat of porridge, from my experience the TAs are responsible for this sort of thing, not the lunch/catering staff, and they already have a lot on their plate supporting the teachers, dealing with parents, admin, not to mention all the adhoc everyday random bits of support they offer to the children.
Not only that, children can be notoriously fussy so usually the most basic piece of toast or bagel is a better option to encourage children to eat. It's less about nutrition and just getting something in their bellies.
How long have you actually experienced working in schools, and what range of demographics, because you sound pretty naive to be questioning this provision at all. I wonder if you have come properly face to face with malnourished children at all? Children that squirrel away bits of food they can get through the school day to share with their siblings at home. Because I have, and it's absolutely heartbreaking.
Your suggestion in the title is to scrap them unless the quality is up to scratch, which is just ridiculous.

To be quite honest, I think we are far too unquestioning of crap parenting these days.
I've only read the first couple of pages but I've seen many posts parroting parents can't afford to feed their children breakfast, without seemingly any critical thinking employed.
On Ocardo - hardly the cheapest but for ease - a wholemeal loaf is 75p and a jar if jam is £1, both M&S.
Are we really REALLY saying that some people can't afford £1.75 for breakfast for at least a week? Come on!
As long as stuff is given for free, people will take it. It's a complete waste of taxpayers' money and is extremely unlikely to catch the children who live in chaotic homes, who quite frankly are the only ones whose parents cannot be arsed to spend under £2 for a week's breakfast. No amount of middle-class handwringing will alter that,

fine if you want to give your little darlings organic eggs and wholemeal toast, but what about the others less fortunate who otherwise go with nothing?

At my child's school, they pick what they want each morning during registration.

We absolutely are. Why are parents not feeding their children breakfast? Why do I have a class of children where the vast majority haven't had anything to eat OR DRINK when they come to me at 9.15am.

Exactly.

It's a reason why they are often the go to options as well as obviously the cost. Nuts often aren't available in the majority of primary schools anyway, my child's school is nut free.

DS’s school dinners are nothing like that. Jollof rice, three bean chilli, curries, pasta bakes, jacket potatoes, roast dinners. They do have fish and chips on a Friday, but that’s the only day they have chips. No burgers, donuts or nuggets. Veg every day, salad bar, fruit available at mid morning break and for dessert (and the kids do choose it).

Breakfast club is toast, jam and cereals, but you are never going to have them cooking a full English to order, and they are nut-free so no peanut butter etc. DS usually has breakfast at home before breakfast club (porridge with fruit), and then sometimes has a slice of buttered toast when he gets there (he doesn’t go every day). I don’t think a piece of buttered wholemeal toast is the worst breakfast in the world tbh, especially if the alternative is no breakfast at all.

After school club is a choice of cheese, ham or jam on a baguette. Not amazing, but it is only meant to be a snack.

The main cost is the staffing costs surely?

It would be cheaper for parents to feed their kids.

Maybe we are putting a sticking plaster on a larger problem.

Lucky people like the op aren’t in charge of initiatives like this. Imagine letting children growing up in difficult situations go hungry in the mornings incase you might not (without any proof) approve of the quality of the food!

It’s very mean spirited and miserly. I used to think it was mainly children and the elderly who were badly effected by the pandemic but it seems like a whole swath of adults lost social skills and now have a diminished ability to empathise with others in their communities. I can only hope things improve as time goes on.

WTAF. In Australia virtually no schools offer breakfast clubs, despite there being a section of the population who desperately need it.
Families whose kids attend breakfast clubs use it because they HAVE TO. Because there’s no money. Like none. Education and educators are already held responsible for much more than appears on their job description and you want to add breakfast drama to it? FFS.

School canteens are often run by 3rd party providers, and breakfast clubs run by the school. The 3rd party privider won't allow the staff running breakfast lub to use the kitchen / their faciliries, meaning breakfast club food is cereal, toast or fruit.

Bearing in mind the minimal funding for breakfast club, food is bouht in a very very tight budget.

The 3rd party providers meals are dire, yet while their quality has caused meal numbers tto drop, they argue the school misled the number of meals they hoped to serve and have successfully charged schools for the lack.of meals and income!

Schools are getting shafted left, right and centre financially - the governent won't care and trysts and MATs are just taking the issues away from.local authorities... when these trusts fail then you get even more cobbled together private companies / trusts getting involved... nothing is going to improve. Whatever money there is, very little trickles down to children.

I work in a deprived area in the NW. nutritional standards and salad bar with water or milk to drink has been the norm for many many years. Food waste is enormous though as our children tend to reject vegetables and anything ‘healthy’ as they’re not used to it. Breakfast club offers whole meal toast with various toppings, low sugar cereal and milk or water. We also offer break time toast or fruit. I’ve been working in deprived communities for 25 years and seen children removed by SS twice and certainly never for just neglect. They don’t get involved unless it’s literally life or death. I’m laughing my arse off here at the thought of any of our kids eating avocado on toast.

I can think of multiple children who would be hospitalised or worse from 60% of those suggestions - nut & egg anaphylaxis. Assuming that we are automatically discounting any kid with coeliac disease, that leaves toast and cereal. So we're back to where we started.