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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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

637 replies

Mushypeass · 07/06/2025 21:20

Firstly, I fully agree with the principle of free breakfast for all pupils. My reservation comes from the quality of food that is often served up in UK school canteens. Obviously a poor quality breakfast is better than no breakfast at all but AIBU that it could encourage children to eat even more UPFs? For example, children who have may had a relatively healthy breakfast at home may now opt eat UPFs at school with their pals instead.

Seocondly, why is the food so poor in so many schools? How can other countries manage to provide their youth with nutritious and healthy meals but we can’t?

OP posts:
EcoCustard · 07/06/2025 22:35

@feelingbleh mine don’t attend. They have porridge, scrambled egg, yoghurt & fruit or peanut butter & toast before I go to work &Dh drops them off before work. Many of the kids sadly get more shite for lunch & dinner, no idea. One of the parents I know well thinks their excelling as their Dc get veg with dinner twice a week (well off). School lunches aren’t great, & once ks1/eyfs is done most don’t purchase lunches as there expensive for a limited choice that isn’t made onsite. I work in a secondary school & the emphasis on nutrition & eating is woeful. Fizzy drinks, ice poles , cookies & a fried roast potato with soggy veg isn’t conducive to afternoon learning whilst walking around a yard in all weathers.

Pieceofpurplesky · 07/06/2025 22:34

Having taught kids who were unfed it’s a great idea.
i have a drawer full of breakfast bars now for the kids in my form I know have had no breakfast. I found out that one boy took a sandwich every day for his free school meal and only ate half of it - so he could take the other half home for his brothers to have something to eat in the evening. Mum and Dad were in the pub most nights. I gave him breakfast for 5 years and his brothers when they started.
Poverty is rife in the UK and not always in the areas you would expect.

Kirbert2 · 07/06/2025 22:34

RaininSummer · 07/06/2025 22:29

I don't understand your comment. Wholemeal bread or porridge are hardly unusual or that expensive but far more nutritious and healthy than white bread and most cereals. Poorer kids deserve healthy food too not the cheapest crap available.

Unless a child has dietary needs, of course.

For my child, white bread is healthier for him so I'm glad that school offers white bread.

user1473878824 · 07/06/2025 22:33

RaininSummer · 07/06/2025 22:29

I don't understand your comment. Wholemeal bread or porridge are hardly unusual or that expensive but far more nutritious and healthy than white bread and most cereals. Poorer kids deserve healthy food too not the cheapest crap available.

I completely agree. But I think it’s wilfully naive to pretend most children who will benefit most from a free breakfast would be better off getting it at home because there isn’t the time or money.

NeverDropYourMooncup · 07/06/2025 22:33

Mushypeass · 07/06/2025 21:44

@Missedthis @mrsmalcolmreynolds

My whole career has been spent supporting disadvantaged children mainly due to the fact I was one many years ago. There is no pearl clutching here. The fact I was 22 before I ever tasted any other vegetable than a potato or carrot is exactly why I am concerned about the content of these meals. These children need food education more than most. Or should they just have their gruel and be thankful?

There would have been fruit and vegetables available in your school dinners - apples, bananas, satsumas, fruit salad, prunes or peaches with custard, apple crumble, depending upon age a fruit pot, lettuce and tomato in prepacked sandwiches, veg including pulses and legumes with the main (often hidden in the stew/cottage pie/etc or the ubiquitous frozen diced carrot, peas and broccoli or peas and sweetcorn), salad/veg in the coleslaw for the jacket potatoes. Was there a reason that you did not have them?

Even the chicken wings and pizza served now have tomato and often other vegetables hidden in the sauce and where breakfast is being served outside the nutritional constraints of the catering companies, jam contains fruit; it's not jam if it doesn't.

Don't forget that you would also have likely had a full hour in which to queue up, get your food, sit down with a proper plate and cutlery and eat in a place with enough seating for everybody. These days, you could have 20 minutes (as the first sitting is for the other half of the school) in which to hurriedly eat something with your fingers or a plastic fork.

I've got direct experience of school meals from the 1970s to the present day. There's no reason why a child entitled to have school meals would be unable to access fruit and vegetables every day and, as such, a couple of slices of toast, some fortified cereal (including milk), a bagel or, Heaven Forfend, a Pain au Chocolat from either a packet or from the ovens if it's a school that still has a kitchen and a private company prepared to supply staff in the mornings because it's cost effective/profitable to do so - is not a harmful thing outside the realms of orthorexia.

In any case, to use a phrase generally expected to refer to deciding whether to formula feed or breast feed, but is equally relevant for children past that age;

Fed is best.

SteamLover · 07/06/2025 22:33

I agree that there needs to be some kind of nutritional guideline for the breakfasts otherwise it is going to be high sugar, high carb processed food that is served due to time and money constraints.

Mischance · 07/06/2025 22:33

Government comes up with ideas that people on the ground have to implement somehow. Small rural schools don't have canteens. They will have to find some way of buying in a service or sandwiches. Some things sound great on paper .........

Givemethesun · 07/06/2025 22:33

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? As pp said I’m pretty health conscious to be honest but breakfast it’s weetabix or porridge and let’s go. (My kids are in a privileged position and get plenty of fruit and veg later in the day.)

ThisDandyWriter · 07/06/2025 22:32

Nurseryquestions86 · 07/06/2025 21:47

My friend works in a school and has had to buy jumpers for her students and take uniform home to wash it as they are coming into school wearing filthy clothes, unbathed and hungry.

Making yoghurt will not be high on her list and a bowl of cornflakes although processed will make sure a child can actually learn as they are not starving.

I don't think some people realise the issues some schools face honestly.

Edited

Those children should not be living with those parents. That is pure neglect.

Nurseryquestions86 · 07/06/2025 22:32

ThisDandyWriter · 07/06/2025 22:27

That is pretty bad. Wholemeal toast, fruit, weetabix is fine/ok. The rest is definitely not pretty good. It’s pretty bad actually.

I never said it was pretty good. I said it wasn't the end of the world and I stand by a crumpet not being the end of the world.

MonTuesWeds · 07/06/2025 22:31

ThisDandyWriter · 07/06/2025 22:29

I honestly do not believe that a parent is so poor they cannot afford a bag of oats, milk/water and apples.

It's not so much the money, the kids won't eat fruit or porridge so it really would be a waste of money.

witwatwoo · 07/06/2025 22:31

It’s not necessarily poverty but dysfunctional parents, addiction etc. I could tell many tales, nothing shocks me any more

dayslikethese1 · 07/06/2025 22:31

Porridge is cheaper than cereal. Do kids hate porridge?

ThisDandyWriter · 07/06/2025 22:29

PinotDragon86 · 07/06/2025 21:41

To clarify my comment, I meant be angry that children are going to school hungry because their parents can't afford to feed them breakfast in the first place.

I honestly do not believe that a parent is so poor they cannot afford a bag of oats, milk/water and apples.

RaininSummer · 07/06/2025 22:29

user1473878824 · 07/06/2025 22:12

Do you think children aren’t getting breakfast at home because the budget doesn’t stretch to free range eggs and granary toast with bee pollen and flax seed?

I don't understand your comment. Wholemeal bread or porridge are hardly unusual or that expensive but far more nutritious and healthy than white bread and most cereals. Poorer kids deserve healthy food too not the cheapest crap available.

RavenLaw · 07/06/2025 22:28

Breakfast club at DD's school offers toast with marge, marmalade, jam or cheese spread, and cereal with dairy or soy milk. In the winter they offer porridge but most kids won't eat it. There is always some fruit available, usually banana chunks or apple slices. That's pretty similar to all the schools near me. DD hates it if she has to go to breakfast club as do most of her friends.

I am pretty sure that no children are falling over themselves to go and eat browning banana chunks and pallid toast at school if they have the option of breakfast at home.

ThisDandyWriter · 07/06/2025 22:27

Nurseryquestions86 · 07/06/2025 21:36

Our breakfast club offer toast, crumpets, bagels, Weetabix and cornflakes oh and fruit. Not the end of the world.

That is pretty bad. Wholemeal toast, fruit, weetabix is fine/ok. The rest is definitely not pretty good. It’s pretty bad actually.

KIlliePieMyOhMy · 07/06/2025 22:23

I used to work In state schools in London.
Salad bar every time.

feelingbleh · 07/06/2025 22:23

EcoCustard · 07/06/2025 22:21

Breakfast club at my DC’s school is used by families for 30 minutes for drop off/work, not those struggling. It offers white bread, spread, value jam & sugar loaded cereals for breakfast. Much like the school lunches they lack nutrition & quality ingredients. However, the attitude in the UK is, it’s all good, doesn’t matter if it’s sugar laden shite, as long as they’re fed.

But surely if your packing them a healthy lunch and making a healthy tea everynight. Plus feeding them all weekend plus the 13 weeks of the holiday every year I don't think a bit of jam on toast will do any harm

Kirbert2 · 07/06/2025 22:23

I'm happy with the food on offer at my child's school so I wouldn't be particularly concerned about breakfast options.

They have daily access to a salad bar, jacket potato bar with various toppings and fresh fruit as well as a 'snacky' option such as a sandwich or panini.

Lunch consists of things such as roast of the day, curry, salmon, homemade dhal etc with the occasional (every other week or so) pizza and burger. They also do meat free Mondays.

Much better than the food options that were offered when he had a hospital stay.

witwatwoo · 07/06/2025 22:22

Will it be eaten or wasted ?

Mushypeass · 07/06/2025 22:22

Marchintospring · 07/06/2025 22:13

The kids from the poorest families I’ve seen seem to have enough food. It’s just shite, carby, UPF.
If schools offered fruit alongside the toast that would be good. Porridge even better.

Admittedly* I have no catering experience but porridge is usually pretty cheap wherever you shop. Surely making up a big vat with some fruit wouldn’t cost the earth? I may be wrong though.

OP posts:
EcoCustard · 07/06/2025 22:21

Breakfast club at my DC’s school is used by families for 30 minutes for drop off/work, not those struggling. It offers white bread, spread, value jam & sugar loaded cereals for breakfast. Much like the school lunches they lack nutrition & quality ingredients. However, the attitude in the UK is, it’s all good, doesn’t matter if it’s sugar laden shite, as long as they’re fed.

feelingbleh · 07/06/2025 22:19

Mushypeass · 07/06/2025 22:17

Who mentioned salmon? 🙄

It was the first fancy food that came into my head 🤣

Bobak · 07/06/2025 22:18

School are paid 60p per pupil attending. With that there needs to be food and staff covered. Free school breakfasts are a con.

A school charging £2 a child would only just break even when providing a basic breakfast offering.

however any breakfast is better than no breakfast but universal free breakfast are not the answer.