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

OP, you're getting unfairly flamed!

I've understood your post as being "free breakfasts should be better quality". Which is absolutely true!

The current arrangement, means that children who are already more likely to be disadvantaged and vulnerable, are being given food which is bad for them and also receiving a poor nutritional education. If they're at school for breakfast, they'll eat what's there. It's a golden opportunity to get something nutritious in them and teach them about healthful food!

Not to even start down the road of why their parents (in a lot of cases), are working so many hours, or are so poor, that they can't feed their children.

The whole situation is disgusting, that as a society, we can't even get it together, to feed our children properly. We need to do better.

Literally no one would argue that the priority is children getting breakfast and being fed.

However, the snarky comments ring a bit hollow when the health/poverty gap is so bloody depressing. Nutrition and health factors before adolescence are incredibly important.

There are different threads to this problem, and our wider food culture is part of it. There will be children who will be resistant to eating different, simple, healthy food, and others with allergies and also SEND to be taken into account. There will also be plenty of kids without any of those factors.

All children should be offered healthy, nutritious food, and not just cheap crap that is going to contribute to poor health in later life.

Our breakfast club has a toaster for the frozen bread and a fridge. We wouldn’t have the space or ability to provide porridge. We used to pay for our kids to go for childcare reasons and it was toast, yogurts, apples, raisins and Cheerios. Could have Apple juice or water. My kids ate breakfast at home first but it would have been find if they hadn’t. And certainly a lifeline for everyone who needed it.

People forget that cereals are fortified with vitamins and minerals. They are served with milk. They may well be UPF, but Weetabix and Cornflakes are not intrinsically bad foods especially if it's that or nothing.

My unfussy, wealthy, well fed at all other meals kids, used to eat cake and drink nesquick for breakfast. Or Nutella toast. Oh the horror.

Im in Scotland so maybe it’s different but I’ve definitely never heard of such a thing here - and I was involved in a big meeting about school lunch provision as our pta rep.

our kids have to order their lunches online a couple weeks before and they’re brought into the school from a central kitchen. No extras and tiny portions. Free school meals for all until p5 though so really good for those who need it.

We had a salad bar at my inner city comprehensive in the late 90s.

Everything our college offers for free breakfast is fried! Sausage bacon egg hash browns and sausage rolls

My view, for a very long time, has been parenting payments should be redirected to schools to provide 3 meals a day for all students as well as all school supplies, uniforms and any extra costs eg trips.

Wow. There are millions of kids in this country living in dire poverty. They are not necessarily starving to death, and many parents will try to feed them at the expense of other essentials. Free breakfast means more money for heating, clothes, shoes and other things kids can’t do without. The concept of ‘eat porridge or starve’ is such a conservative out of touch trope I’m surprised anyone could write it without giving themselves a slap.

I thought salad bars were the norm at state schools. My child's school has a jacket potato bar with toppings as well. State school.

Of course, due to health reasons, he can't even eat salad so it doesn't apply to him but it's definitely there at his state school.

My god the middle class handwringing! Bread and jam! Whatever next. Crack cocaine in the coco pops?!

Allergies etc aside, if we are talking about disadvantaged children who don't get breakfast and go to school starving then I think they will eat anything on offer but better if it's healthy stuff. If kids are turning their noses up at porridge etc then they can't be that hungry really.

I’m not lecturing anyone. I just don’t believe we are funding the right things . There needs to be a lot more money given to schools /social care to support families that really need it. Giving shit breakfasts to about if people that don’t need it is a waste of funds.

sure start was a good intervention. Foster parents need more support, sen support etc etc.

i work on the edge of the school sector and do a lot of volunteering with underprivileged children.

I definitely don’t have the answers, I only see what needs to be improved.

but isn’t this what we pay our ministers their salaries for? To come up with the solutions and implement?

We've already been told that in France, parents are charged €5 a day.

I’ve never seen or heard of a salad bar at a state school. The private schools have them though. Sounds nice! The meals at my kids schools are terrible but fortunately we are in the position to pack lunches at home.

Nothing wrong with potatoes and carrots.

Burgers for breakfast?

So what do you think SS do ?

Sad thing is that people think that is it the families who lack money who do not have breakfast. From experience this is not always the case. Many families with money also do not give breakfast as routine. It is not always about lack of money. Sometimes it is lack of caring.

You don’t work in the system do you ? Very easy to lecture when you’re on the outside

Yep.

Real life often involves other factors and is rarely if ever black and white and oh so simple.

Children who are used to eating white bread, coco pops and in the more extreme cases things such as crisps and chocolate for breakfast aren't going to start magically eating porridge with fruit for breakfast.

Children with SEN who have limited diets and may only eat white bread or coco pops also aren't magically going to start eating healthier either.

and then you have children with allergies and/or dietary needs. This is my child, he can't eat wholemeal foods due to medical reasons and is under a dietician so it isn't actually the best option for him.

I absolute agree with you.

Clearly not enough otherwise we wouldn’t hear all these examples of children in dirty clothes or underclothed, without having had breakfast etc etc. how are we in a situation where teachers are having to take in breakfast bars ffs?

Voted YABU because it makes no sense to say that if we can't provide the best breakfast on the state, we shouldn't provide anything - which is the implication of your title. By all means lobby for more funding for schools to provide better breakfasts (seriously - they're basically magicking this out of thin air).

In the meantime, something is better than nothing - we have plenty of research on the effect that skipping breakfast has on learning. So no, we shouldn't be removing free breakfast - we should be investing in it.

My dc are entitled to FSM. I took ds off them because it’s mainly ultra processed stuff that aggravates his reflux and probable adhd. He is much better on packed lunches where I know what he’s eating. Dd is about to leave school and there is rarely any veggie option and the portions are tiny. No plates either-pizza is served on a bit of card. Not a paper plate, a bit of card. One tiny slice of pizza for growing teenagers and those on FSM have to have the meal deal of a drink (often fizzy flavoured artificially sweetened water in a plastic bottle), nuggets and chips type meal and a cookie. The options at break are half a bagel, sausage barm, bacon barm, toast, danish pastries, doughnuts. You have to pay for those. Kids on FSM don’t get anything at break.

Breakfast club at primary school was UPF toast and margarine, UPF cereal, squash with artificial sweeteners. Same for after school club. Utter shite.

The quality needs to improve.